Rebecca Branco received an urgent message from her daughter Monday morning. He had only a few hours to act. And the American presidency could depend on it.
‘My daughter said Mom, have you registered to vote?’ I say I don’t know,” the longtime Angola resident and immigrant said outside the early voting site in downtown Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
‘She said mom, today is the last day. You have to go today.
‘Do I have to do it?’ the mother asked. “She said yes, mom, you have to go.” Within minutes, Branco hopped in an Uber to make sure she was registered and voted for Kamala Harris.
The worker at Dart Container, which makes packaging materials for food and beverages, shared the urgent text message she received with DailyMail.com outside the Lancaster County Government Center. ‘Sweetie’s’ daughter’s note reveals just some of the urgency in battleground Pennsylvania as voters implore their own relatives to get their papers in order in a race where a slim margin could decide the winner. the presidential elections.
Mothers are struggling to register their children. Mennonite and Amish farmers are walking downtown to cast their votes, some for the first time. And Trump supporters, fired up for a late-night town hall, are stashing their guns at polling places so they can vote for the leader they believe will reduce inflation.
Early voting is already underway in Pennsylvania, a state that Joe Biden won by just a percentage of the vote four years ago. Donald Trump won it by even less in 2016.
Rebecca Branco hopped in an Uber after her daughter begged her to check her registration before Monday’s deadline.
Cody Buffing registered to vote for the first time on Monday. The out-of-town student says he will “most likely” vote for Harris and registered as a Democrat. It took a push from his mother to get him to sign up. ‘We tried to do it online. It didn’t work out, so we came here,’ he said.
Her mother Danielle, a chef who is organizing her family to vote, plans to gather her four children to vote together in person. ‘I’m not pushing. I want you to vote. It matters.’
The only thing he regrets about the current cycle: ‘I wish it had been a longer campaign. As if Joe Biden had stopped before. “We would have had more time to spread more information about her,” he said. “Because it seems like everyone is starting to know about her.”
Not all students were so lucky. Students at the city’s Franklin & Marshall College say a local employee rejected them (by mistake) who said their prior registration in other states prevented them from registering here.
Rebecca Branco got into an Uber when her daughter urged her to register
Excused Absence: Cody Buffing registered to vote for the first time on Monday’s deadline. His mother Danielle plans to take her four children to vote on Election Day.
Packing heat: Student Dean Davis was impressed by police professionalism when he declared his firearm and locked it away to cast his first vote for Donald Trump. “I don’t trust the city,” he says
‘He is a human being. He is anointed and appointed by God. And you know, nobody’s perfect,” said Pennsylvania voter and Trump supporter Sue Schnitzenbaumer (R), with her husband Pete.
Donald Trump campaigned in Lancaster on Sunday night
Pennsylvania is a volatile state, according to polls, and the state is considered the most critical in deciding who will prevail in the November election. There are 9 million registered voters in Pennsylvania, and Republicans have a 19 percent lead in Lancaster County.
The city of Lancaster is the blue dot in the center of the surrounding more rural communities that tend to vote Republican.
Trump beat Biden 57 to 51 percent in this county four years ago.
But when Pennsylvanians turned out to cast their early votes, there were plenty of Trump supporters who showed up, despite the candidate’s occasional attacks on early voting and his support for same-day voting.
Among them was Dean Davis, a student who has scruples about cities in general and who suddenly, when he showed up to vote, realized that he was still carrying his firearm hidden under his sweatshirt.
He said the police officer at the polling place was professional after declaring the gun and putting it in a locker.
‘He’s like, you can carry, man, you can carry whatever you want… Super cool, one on one. That’s amazing.’
‘Personally, I’m going to take this wherever I go. People today, especially now… I don’t trust the city. I have never done it. It doesn’t matter what city it is. “I never go anywhere without this,” he said.
He says he voted for Trump for reasons having to do with inflation and illegal immigration.
“With the current housing situation and inflation, I can’t afford anything.”
‘Under the Trump administration, I bought an old truck. It was just what I could get… but now I’m stuck on it. That thing is not easy to maintain and maintain.
“You hear all the stories about people being murdered and raped. For me here I feel safe because I am far from this. But that worries me for my fellow Americans.” Still, on a block filled with art galleries and cafes, Davis said he has Democratic friends who embrace the urban lifestyle and don’t support Trump.
There has been a steady stream of other Trump supporters inside urban polling places. Among them is Sue Schnitzenbaumer, who attended Trump’s event with Trump, where the former president, 78, said he was “not that close” to 80, got his interviewer’s name wrong and misheard someone saying “St. Louis baseball player Stan.” Musial was in the audience.
He said he endorsed Trump for the third time because of “what he stands for in life.” And what it represents in politics. This is not a politician.’
‘He is a human being. He is anointed and appointed by God. And you know, nobody’s perfect…He’s the real deal,’ she said.
There is a push to register members of Lancaster County’s Amish and Mennonite communities, which tend to be conservative but have resisted voting for years.
“I’ve given out quite a few registrations between Amish and Mennonites alone,” said Ryan Sexton of Early Vote Action, a group behind the Amish for Trump campaign.
The Amish came out and voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020. The fact that we only lost by 80,000 votes – there were approximately 80,000 to 90,000 Amish in Pennsylvania alone,” he said. “We decided it was a risk we wanted to take.”