Students and faculty aim to create unity in a year of election confusion.
By Claire Ferris ’21
For the 2020 election, Cary Academy is once again serving as a polling place.
Quite literally, our school embodies the democratic process, the edifice of Cary Academy embracing and sheltering voters as they exercise their right to vote. The spirit of the process cannot be taken lightly; indubitably, an air of history and pride swept the lobby of the CMS on November 3, 2020 as its mask-clad voters stood in line to vote, earnestly aware of the gravitas and patriotism that their voiced opinions possessed.
But the election did not end on November 3rd; it did not end when those voters drove away; it did not even end when school resumed the next day, and students returned to campus for their regularly-scheduled classes. The outcome of the election – or what I will simply call the events that have ensued after November 3, in my best attempt to capture the confusion and even chaos following this year’s election – will linger in the Cary Academy community for days.
This year’s presidential election featured two major-party candidates: incumbent Donald J. Trump with running mate Michael Pence running on the Republican party ticket; and Joseph R. Biden, Jr. with running mate Kamala Harris comprising the Democratic party ticket. After an eventful evening on Tuesday, November 3rd, it appeared that Donald Trump had an edge in the race, with many electorally significant states – such as Nevada, Arizona, and Pennsylvania – remaining uncalled; however, as many news sources predicted, Joe Biden began to inch ahead as a result of polling centers receiving, opening, and counting mail-in and absentee ballots. As mailed ballots were statistically more likely to favor Biden, his lead slowly grew over the course of the next few days. On Saturday, most news outlets projected Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election after Biden’s lead in Pennsylvania widened and became stable, granting him enough electoral college votes to put him at and over the minimum number of votes (270) required to win the presidency.
Many states, including North Carolina, have received supreme court rulings allowing mail-in ballots to be accepted and counted for a number of days after the election – this is why you might see North Carolina’s election status remaining “uncalled” for a while. Though most ballots have been received, there is still a grace period, and since the race is tight in North Carolina, it’s difficult to declare a definitive winner of the state’s electoral votes until all of the votes have been received and counted. Despite the uncertain presidential results of North Carolina (though it will likely swing Republican), Democratic senate candidate Cal Cunningham has indeed conceded to his incumbent Republican opponent, Thom Tillis.
After the 2016 election, Cary Academy went through a period of uncertainty. After historic campaigns for both the Democratic and Republican parties and results that challenged the predictions of many polls, Americans struggled with the difficulty of defining what they felt. The people of CA shared this difficulty – some rejoiced in the results, others did not; some simply felt that sense of relief that marked the dissipation of a stressor; many felt the burden of uncertainty. While “historic” certainly encapsulates the nature of the 2016 election, the word epitomized a myriad of feelings – above all, strife.
In a proactive effort to combat a similar type of strife that could beleaguer our community this year, the Center for Community Engagement brought the tool of dialogues to CA Upper School population. “The dialogue program was actually prompted by the 2016 election. The day after the election was a weird day, and no one really had a formal space to talk about it – it wasn’t a very healthy way to deal with the events of the election,” Student Director of Dialogue and Open Discussions Meirav Solomon (’21) explains. Dialogue soon came to CA through the company Essential Partners, with which the dialogue program has a contract. Virtually all upper school students have had the opportunity to participate in dialogues, the first three encompassing themes of either stress and anxiety at CA, racial equity, or gender experiences. The fourth dialogue, though, was a discussion about the election and its impact on the CA community – held just a little under a week before the election.
As Solomon envisioned it, the election dialogue was not created as a place for students to voice their political opinions. “We wanted to make sure that we dialogued about the election in a way that would create and hold a space for people to talk about how they feel right now in this divisive time, as well as what we want to do as a community to heal after the election. With that goal in mind, we worked really hard to ensure that dialogue meets its purpose of providing a meaningful, authentic, empathetic way of having difficult, uncomfortable conversations,” Solomon remarks.
After a successful round of dialogues, the program and its 30-plus student facilitators are in need of a bit of a break. However, Solomon intends for the program to continue its conversations after Thanksgiving break, especially now that the election has passed. Working with affinity groups and other clubs on campus such as STEP (Shifting the Educational Paradigm), the dialogue program attempts to plan new, more relaxed dialogues with a bit less structure and formality. The conscientious efforts of the dialogue program, combined with the spirit of the school after the 2016 election, prompt an important question: what is the CA community going to look like now that a winner of the election has been declared?
Other groups on campus have been working furiously to ensure that division and confusion in our community does not usurp the overwhelming curiosity toward the election process and actionable desire for unity and communication. The history department held a panel on election day, fielding questions regarding the election and offering touches of personal insight and wisdom. The panelists – Ms. Jones, Dr. Meszaros, and Mr. Velto – thoroughly answered questions ranging from the nuts and bolts of the Electoral College (there was much interest in this particular topic) to voting rules and procedure in each state (for example, why Maine and Nebraska don’t give all of their electoral votes to a single candidate). Concluding the panel, each panelist offered a resource that they felt was a good starting point for students and members of the CA community interested in furthering their participation in (or learning about!) civic duties. The panelists recommended visiting the website for the North Carolina League of Women Voters; reading about the 2012 Supreme Court Case, Shelby County vs. Holder; reading the book (which, Mr. Velto prefaces, is not an unbiased work) Let the People Pick the President, written by New York Times journalist Jesse Wegman (or this NPR article about the book); or viewing the four-part “Stressed Election” series from The New York Times, beginning with Episode 1: Why Voting in This U.S. Election Will Not Be Equal.
Whether you are a voting novice or a seasoned professional with many elections under your belt, working on expanding knowledge related to the electoral process and civic duties is always a good idea – especially beginning in this unusual transition time before Joe Biden is sworn in at noon on January 20, 2021. Research, inquiry, and questions about our country’s most sacred processes will also benefit the CA community – if we are all devoted toward understanding the facts behind this and future elections, we will almost certainly be more devoted to creating a unified, compassionate community, regardless of who wins elections in the future.