The Christian Science Monitor

Tight race tests Americans’ trust in system – and each other

Madeleine Johnson (left) and her mother, Krystin, hold the 1,000 cookies they baked for poll workers at the Pioneer Farms polling site in Austin, Texas, Nov. 3, 2020. While they trust the pandemic-altered voting process, they both said they're worried ballots won't be fairly counted.

Amid one of the most logistically challenging and tightly contested elections in years, voters across the country are worried about everything from ballots getting lost to deceptive robocalls that told people to stay home on Election Day. But for many, their greatest fears have less to do with machines or mechanisms than with their fellow Americans.

“I think that Trump supporters will be more supportive if Biden wins than Biden supporters if Trump wins,” says Tabitha McQuait, standing in a field across from the Goldboro church where dozens of voters have parked haphazardly in the grass. 

“Sadly, I agree,” says her mom, Julie McQuait, echoing concerns voiced by Democrats as well. “Whichever candidate wins, I think the other party is going to take it poorly.”

“My question is ... why don’t they have an auditing firm like Deloitte or somebody that comes in and oversees us?” asks the elder Ms. McQuait, who works at a local Fortune 500 company. “They oversee the lottery, why shouldn’t they oversee something as

Voting amid a pandemicWhen both sides think they’ve won

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