Election: Vote counts make for late night, early morning for local readers

Wine, lots of wine, and sweets and pizza and very little sleep got election watchers through the night and ready for a long day.

“It was wine and cake for me,” said Samanaz Kapadia of Hawthorne. “I woke up around 2:30 and checked then again at 6. There was a lot of disbelief last night, but today I’ve looked at the math and I am hopeful.”

There are a lot of bleary-eyed people at work Wednesday, Nov. 4 in Southern California. They stayed up late staring at the network television “big boards,” doing lots of math in their heads, cheering or worrying about what they were seeing.

What looked like it might have been a great night for President Donald Trump turned into a hopeful morning for Joe Biden.

It was like watching an intense TV show that wouldn’t end. Game of Votes? Breaking Sad?

Or back surgery without anesthesia.

“I was so stressed,” said Gladys Gonzalez of Westminster. “I ordered an XL pizza and watched until midnight. I kept shouting at the TV every time Trump won a state. A lot of anxiety.”

There were Republicans, like the president himself, who shouted “Fraud.”

“We are feeling cheated,” said Sunil Kumar of Laguna Hills. “Democrats have rigged the presidential election.”

There was no evidence of any fraud, but the allegations added to the tension.

“I stayed up until 4 a.m.,” said Matthew Bacon of Huntington Beach. “I’m disappointed and very skeptical of this morning’s sudden finds of one way ballots in other states. I drank a hefty amount of beer and ate my nephew’s Halloween candy.”

Some people refused to watch television news.

“I didn’t watch TV returns but scrolled through Twitter for updates while watching a mindless TV series,” said Marian Hollingsworth of San Diego. “Went to bed stressed at 1:30 a.m. after Trump said to stop counting votes. Up at 7 and again chose Twitter for the latest results. Feeling a little better now. Halloween candy helped.”

Jimmy Camp, a veteran political operative from Orange, had a long night that began in the afternoon.

“I was glued to the TV starting at 4 p.m. when the first polls started closing back east,” Camp said. “Fortunately I have a tradition/rule not to start drinking until the polls close at 8 p.m. in California at which point I made myself a White Russian. I stayed glued to reporting until this morning when it became clearer to me that Biden would reach 270 and now I’m going to bed, with the TV still on. We’ll see if I get any sleep.”

Susanne D’Arcy of Anaheim Hills is ready to celebrate, but hasn’t yet.

“I sipped champagne and have a bit of a headache, but saved half the bottle to celebrate victory when I can,” D’Arcy said. “I will be attaching mylar star balloons on my Biden sign soon.”

Some people thought the tension was a bad sign for America.

“I have low-grade depression,” said Karina Carretero. “Even if Biden wins, it’s disheartening to see those heat maps and such a divided America. It’s like the soul of our country is dying.”

Vanessa Murray of Garden Grove decided to watch a movie. But she couldn’t stay away from the news.

“I think I got about 4 hours of sleep,” Murray said. “I didn’t stress eat. I couldn’t. I ate dinner, and dinner just seemed to sit in my stomach for hours and hours.

“I was hopeful at the beginning of the night, but seeing the numbers coming in for Trump, I became nervous, even a little depressed. I took a break from watching the results and watched something funny because of feeling disappointed. I watched ‘Bob’s Burgers’ to get my mind off it for a little bit. I began watching again around 11 p.m. My stomach was still not great. It became clear PA wasn’t going to report more results. Trump made his premature ‘victory’ speech, (ticked) me off, and I had to watch something funny again before I fell asleep, pretty exhausted.”

Cameron Arcand of Irvine was watching local races.

“I was able to get about 6 hours (of sleep), but I did check national and local results first thing today,” Arcand said. “National results didn’t surprise me, but the Orange County numbers did. I’m surprised that the Irvine city council will almost entirely flip Democratic, and I think Michelle Steel still has a fighting chance depending on mail-in ballots.”

Kurtis Wismer of Winnetka kept his cool.

“I was surprisingly positive as most of the news I saw over Twitter came in,” Wismer said. “Saw lots of misinformation also but I think I have a good sense of what is nonsense and was able to filter it out. A lot of the panic I saw coming in from Democrats on Twitter wasn’t based on reality.”

Bridget Smith said she was busy and she’s not happy with what happened.

“I was at softball practice, then basketball practice, zipping kids around and grateful for the distraction,” Smith said. “The system is rigged and sadly watching our country feel like a hot mess.”

Source: Orange County Register