By Susan Bromley

Staff Writer

Brandon Twp

.- It was a steady stream of voters Tuesday afternoon at Fire Station #2 in the township, and exit polling showed many had cast their ballot for Donald Trump, the Republican nominee and eventual president-elect.

Mary Smith voted for Trump mostly because she didn’t want his opponent, Hillary Clinton, as president.

“I’m scared to death— she’s crooked,” said Smith, who added that she believed people who previously weren’t saying anything would come out of the woodwork in support of Trump. “It’s good if Trump gets in and we’re screwed if Hillary gets in there. We need somebody like to Trump unify us.”

Many of her fellow voters, including her neighbor, Joe Barnard, seemed to feel the same.

“I voted for Trump because I like what he says— he says what he’s thinking,” said Barnard.”He wasn’t my first pick, but once he got the nomination, I was on the Trump train. He’ll bring work back and negotiating. The last administration apologized too much and gave too much.”

Melissa Williams has always been a very conservative Republican, but was on the fence many times this campaign about voting for the Republican candidate. She ultimately voted for Trump because she said she needed conservative Supreme Court justices. The court currently has only eight justices after Antonin Scalia died in February and the Republican controlled Senate refused to consider confirming Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, saying the nomination of the next justice should belong to whoever was president in 2017.

Sherry AuBuchon also voted for Trump with Supreme Court justices in mind, not based on his personality.

“It will be much more challenging and more suffering if he doesn’t win,” she said. “Hillary’s agenda is problematic for Christians. Our religious liberties would be threatened.”

Mikayla Sharp, was voting for the first time and picked Trump.

“It was really hard to choose, these were not very good candidates, both had large flaws.”

Military and police officer ties in her family helped Tonya Gilbert make her decision for whom to vote, although she worried about the future regardless of who would win.

“I feel we could have stronger candidates than the two we ended up with,” she said. “I have a son who this term will turn 18 and sign up for the draft. I don’t feel either candidate is qualified to rebuild our military. God forbid we get attacked by ISIS or bombed. They were too worried about calling each other names than discussing matters. These definitely are not the John Kennedy years. I don’t know what it will take to unify this country— there’s too much hate. Not all cops are bad, not all black people are bad. I feel like we’re back in the ‘60s, we’re going backward instead of forward. Old school men are like, ‘Women can’t be president,’ and women are like, ‘All men are pigs.’”

Loren Hotchkiss voted for Trump and because his choice was elected, he won’t have to get a passport and leave the country, as he said he might as well do if Hillary Clinton was elected instead.

“If she wins, it’s all done,” he said. “Just because she’s a woman doesn’t give her the right to be president. We will not be united if she gets in. This is good versus evil.”

Robert Silvers said he didn’t think anyone was really happy with either candidate, but of the two, he voted for Trump because he thought he would be best for the country.

“I think this election will go down in history,” he said. “I don’t know what Trump will do, but in four years, we can start over. I think we will all come together. We all have the same issues and we’ll have four years either way.”

Jim Elmslie came to the poll to vote directly from a food bank where he was volunteering and said what is needed for unity is maturity.

“People need to grow up,” he said. “You’ve gotta look for what benefits the common good and those who are less fortunate.”

He was in the minority in Brandon Township casting his vote for Clinton, saying there was no other choice and suggesting the majority of those voting for Trump were white, uneducated males looking for the Republican candidate to bring back manufacturing jobs that no longer exist. There are jobs available, he noted, but they are jobs for people who are college educated, or who have learned a skilled trade, not common laborer jobs.

Ultimately, he believes what is needed now is education.

“Our hope lies in education,” he said. “People with education are less racist than those who are uneducated and solutions require intellect to move through the issues… We are close to open warfare in certain areas.”