By james art 
A chaotic election season sent voters in a city built by and for politics on a rollercoaster ride.
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As the 2024 campaign reaches its finale, voters in Tallahassee said they are swimming in a sea of anticipation, disappointment and anxiety about how the election will turn out.
A chaotic election season sent voters in a city built by and for politics on a rollercoaster ride. There have been two assassination attempts (Donald Trump), last-minute candidate changes (Kamala Harris), dramatic debates, and ongoing legal challenges over the electability of voters and candidates.
In addition, intensely polarizing campaigns on behalf of the candidates and two initiatives to expand access to abortion and marijuana in Florida stalk voters on their phones, televisions and social media.
On the Thursday and Friday before Election Day, a reporter traveled the length of the Capital Circle, which connects Tallahassee’s affluent north and east suburbs with working-class rural neighborhoods south and west of the state capital, to ask people what they were thinking as the polls close.
Random stops were made at grocery stores, coffee shops, sports bars, restaurants and office parks along the business corridor for a bustling city of 200,000 that is a unique mix of politicians and citizens.
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Alan Dial, a 74-year-old retired Navy submariner whose second career included missionary work in Africa, Alaska and Colorado, expressed frustration with the behavior of the presidential candidates and the political parties they lead.
“American politics is a disgrace. I can’t believe we can’t do better than candidates who act like sixth-graders on the playground,” Dial said over an afternoon cup of coffee at a cafe that shares a square with a Greek sandwich shop, a whiskey bar and a pizzeria.
“I can’t wait for it to be over,” Dial said of the election. “It’s all lol.”
Dial was not alone in expressing frustration with a political process that leaves people worried, stressed and worried about the outcome. Friday morning, Bill Kelly stopped for gas at a Circle K on the city’s south side.
As the sun cleared the tree line for the Apalachicola National Forest, when the election was mentioned, Kelly promptly declared, “I hope Trump wins.” The 60-year-old Harley Davidson mechanic added that it was “a bit nerve-wracking, at the moment you can’t trust the media or the polls anymore”.
Then with a smile, Kelly waved at a reporter’s ID badge and said, “No offense, my friend, but the mainstream media is pretty one-sided.”
At the north end of Capital Circle, where I-10 meets and US 319 turns north toward the luxury subdivisions, Angela Antonucci, 78, pushes a buggy through the produce section of Trader Joe’s. She said the campaign had left her very anxious, concerned and worried.
Antonucci suggested voting for Kamala Harris and then dismissed her concern as “typical Democrat concern.”
Loren Larsen, a 34-year-old Publix manager excited about a potential “blue swing” in Florida, put a positive spin on the anxiety others were talking about. “I hope Florida gets it right this time. I hope to be happy,” Larsen said.
Amber Lefstedt, a 40-year-old biologist, stood outside a department store and explained the whirlwind of conflicting emotions in which voters are caught.
“The first female president and a person of color, now that’s something to be excited about,” Lefstead said. “But I’m very worried if it goes in a direction I don’t want it to go. I could see things happening to our country that I don’t want to happen.
The sentiment expressed by Tallahassee voters mirrors that of the nation as a whole. More than seven in 10 adults say Tuesday’s results about the direction the nation will take are a significant source of stress, according to the American Psychological Association’s latest Stress in America survey.
About a third of adults say the political climate has caused tension for them and their family members, while 30% say they limit time with family because they don’t share the same values.
Political scientists and media researchers have explored the hyperbolic nature of modern campaigns. A 2015 University of Illinois analysis of how fear can be used to influence voting behavior found that messages with fear were almost twice as effective as messages without fear.
Dial, the retired pastor, said the excessive campaign rhetoric has created a lot of anxiety and stress among his group of friends. “Everybody’s saying, ‘Oh, there’s going to be a civil war if she’s elected.’ ‘Oh, there’s going to be a civil war if he’s elected.’ ‘Oh, there’s going to be this.’ And that’s bullshit,” Dale said.
Barbara, his wife, said voters felt “inundated” with campaign messages: “We’re just inundated with it. It wouldn’t hurt to have a general debate, a logical argument. But it’s so strange the way they throw criticism back and forth,” said Barbara, 74.
Of more than a dozen voters interviewed along Capital Circle over two days, a drywall installer from Tallahassee was the only one who said the campaign was not a source of stress or anxiety. Allen (he did not want to give his last name) finished breakfast at the Waffle House, where eight lanes of Capital Circle narrow to two lanes for SR 263.
“What I do know is that the election is going to go the way it’s going to go. So I’m going to do my job and vote and whoever gets in gets in,” he said. “And I’ll support them because that’s what we have to do.
“It doesn’t matter if you agree with everything or not. You have to support them.”
James Cole is a member of the USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at [email protected] and is on X as @CallTallahassee.