Waynesburg University students and staff have been keeping up with the 2020 Election.

“It is stressful,” said Holly Ludvigsen, a senior criminal justice major. “Polls predicted Joe Biden would win by a landslide, but I knew not to believe that considering that’s what they said about Hillary in 2016 as well.” 

Ludvigsen said she voted for democratic nominee and former vice president Joe Biden. 

“Whether it’s police reform, healthcare, immigration and the environment,” said Ludvigsen. “I think he’s far more aligned with my views policy wise, though he might not be as liberal as I would like.”

“A total complete mess,” said Dr. Richard Waddel, a professor of political science. “I say that because with the pandemic, we put in all this mail-in voting and I don’t think it was done well at all.”

Dr. Waddel voted for President Donald Trump. 

“I think President Trump was the best candidate,” said Waddel. “If you look at his record over the past four years economically, we’ve done very well, in foreign affairs there is peace breaking out all over the place, especially in the middle east.”

“Voter turnout was incredibly high,” said Ryan Williams, a senior political science major. “I think the one overall thing from this election, at least a lesson to learn, is that there should probably be more unanimity in agreeance with an election voting process.” 

Williams voted for President Trump. 

“For me, Donald Trump was a representation of the anti-establishment movement. I feel like for years we’ve had political candidates that represented the status quo of politics, but then we had a random business man come in and really change up the system,” said Williams. 

There were also various opinions on the speed of some states counting votes.

“I think this was predicted,” said Ludvigsen. “Especially in a state like Pennsylvania, where they aren’t allowed to count mail-in ballots until Election Day. We knew it was going to take some time.”

“Some states are still accepting ballots, I think that is absolutely wrong,” said Waddel. “Election Day was Tuesday. The excuse is maybe they got lost in the mail, well you shouldn’t have mailed it. We have to have a date and that is why we have that date.”

“It definitely raises questions,” said Williams. “In elections past, every state would basically be done counting pretty soon, but I think what it does is that it just opens up more political wounds that we really don’t need any more of. The more this process is delayed, the more questions people are going to ask.” 

On the topic of how they voted and their belief in the process, Ludvigsen, Waddel and Williams all gave differing perspectives. 

“I go back and forth,” said Ludvigsen. “You saw cases that were making it more difficult to vote, polling places were shut down which confuses me because I would think that more people should be voting in more places to make it safer.”

“My trust in the post office isn’t really high,” said Waddel. “My polling place is a two-minute walk from here, to be able to walk down and know it was going through. There was no way I was mailing it in.”

“I did it in-person,” said Williams. “I drove back on election day to vote. I think as far as the mail-in ballots go it’s been handled absolutely terribly.”