The election night party at Elmer’s in Ashfield started out festive, with families gathered around tables watching two large screens of televised voting results.
And then the seesaw began. Donald Trump won Indiana and Kentucky. Hillary Clinton won Vermont. No big surprise. But the room grew somber as the electoral votes from southern states seemed to mount for Trump.
Tamara Sloan and her 15-year-old son, Macalistair Sloan-Anderson, watched the screen while nibbling on a grilled sandwich and chocolate cake. “Last night, we all sat around, as a family, and talked about the presidential election and all the ballot questions,” Sloan said.
“We had a good debate about the charter school issue,” said Sloan, who has two children in charter schools. “There was debate around the (livestock) cage issue and medical marijuana.” Surprisingly, she said, all four children would have voted against the marijuana ballot question, while their parents were for it.
As early numbers favoring Trump climbed, the room grew quieter and there were mumblings about “moving to Canada.” But when Clinton’s Florida project climbed to 49 percent to Trump’s 48, the room shouted out a collective cheer.
The scene of anxiety and tension was repeated across Franklin County through the night.
In Shelburne Falls, The Blue Rock Cafe hosted an elegant potluck election party, drawing at least 50 or so residents. In one corner, Libertarian Party congressional candidate Thomas T. Simmons was sitting with a friend, who was scrutinizing a laptop for Massachusetts results. Simmons was destined to lose his challenge for a seat in Congress.
As in Ashfield, the party-goers seemed dismayed about the tightening race results. “I’m still in disbelief at the results,” said David Howland of Buckland. “It’s amazing how close it is, between Clinton and Trump. It should have been a landslide for Clinton,” he said.
After Works bar in South Deerfield was filled with a local crowd of both Democrats and Republicans Tuesday night catching up and talking politics.
“They say the market is going to go to hell if Trump gets in,” said Rich LaFrance, one of a handful of people at the bar watching television screens tuned to election latest. “It’s going to plunge like a rock. Who knows what he’s going to do.”
He looked back at the screen, adding, “he’s a little loose with those atomic weapons.”
Among Democrats, fear of a Donald Trump presidency was apparent.
“He’s a complete narcissist,” said local resident Ross Nawotny about the millionaire businessman, noting that if he gets in, “his decisions are going to affect the country in a negative way.”
While opinions differed about which candidate was fit to lead the country, people on both sides of the political isle — both Democrats and Republicans — expressed a deep-seated fear about what comes next.
“We need a change,” said an older man named Richard, a Donald Trump supporter from South Deerfield who declined to give his last name. “We’ve got race relations going to hell, we’re in wars, healthcare is also going to hell.”
Around the bar, others offered comments about the race but declined to say who they were — citing a sharp divide in the small town’s political opinions.
At the Rendezvous, in Turners Falls, the bar was packed with those anxiously watching CNN on a large projector set up at one end of the bar. The crowd, which appeared to be mostly Clinton supporters, was cheering when she was gaining ground early in the night but became more anxious as the night wore on and Trump won more states.
Around 10:30 p.m., as the race was tightening, Hope and Olive restaurant in Greenfield was full of anxious viewers watching live election coverage in the bar area, the crowd occasionally breaking out in applause as new results came in.
“It’s all anxiety riddled,” said Greenfield Democratic Town Committee member Elizabeth Fisk. “I’m still hopeful, but more anxious than I was three hours ago.”
Across the room, Nicole Letourneau — a longtime Hillary Clinton supporter — said she’d been glued to the TV.
“I am (nervous), but I’m just one of those people that has a really hard time fathoming that a person like Donald Trump could be the leader of our country and the leader of the free world,” she said. “Maybe that’s a failing on my part, but I just have a hard time comprehending that.”
At-Large Greenfield Town Councilor Penny Ricketts, who had been watching election coverage at Hope and Olive since 6 p.m., said she was feeling nervous and shocked at how close the race had become on her way home from the restaurant. Ricketts said she plans to stay up until all the results are in.
“I will go to bed probably Thursday,” she said, adding that by the morning, she hopes everybody she knows hasn’t moved to Canada.
“I hope to see that Hillary is president, but you know what? Whoever is president, I just want everyone to come together. All the countries are looking at us — we’re the best country ever — and everybody is looking at us, and we look like the biggest circus,” she said.
The Orange Armory was the scene of a jam-packed parking lot as people swarmed to cast their ballots ahead of the polls closing Tuesday evening.
The first floor of the armory resembled a busy holiday bazaar, with locals zipping around and often stopping to talk with friends.
Trina Moruzzi declined to identify who she voted for but said she feels this was the most important presidential election in American history, due to the candidates nominated and the issues facing the country.
Election workers in Athol said approximately 4,800 of the town’s 6,800 registered voters had cast their ballots by 7 p.m.
Randall Duquette, who said he moved back to Athol in February, said he votes in every election because he comes from a military family and voting is a right a lot of people have died for.
Athol Town Clerk Nancy Burnham said there were 2,026 early voting ballots cast and 200 absentee ballots.
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