Washington, October 30. In the US general election, some states are called “swing states” or “battlefield states.” The two parties are fiercely contested and the election is full of suspense, and is crucial to the election result.
Which “swing state” is the most critical this year? American media and opinion poll experts generally recommend Pennsylvania first. Trump, who has gone to Pennsylvania time after time to canvass votes, said at a campaign rally: “If we win Pennsylvania, we will win the entire election.”
I still remember that on election night in 2016, Trump, who was competing for the presidency, won Penn State with a 0.72% advantage. When the ownership of Pennsylvania was announced, the result of the general election was almost a foregone conclusion.
Now, will Pennsylvania, nicknamed the “state of the keystone”, once again set the end of the general election?
As Election Day approaches on November 3, what do Pennsylvania voters think about the two candidates, this year’s election and the situation in the United States? Please see the report sent by Xinhua News Agency reporters in the hinterland of Pennsylvania–
“No matter who gets elected,
Some people will be unhappy”
Since the second half of the 20th century, York County has clearly favored the Republican Party in presidential elections. At the Republican Party Office in York County, reporters saw campaign slogans plastered on the windows and doors, and the propaganda materials sold even included pet collars with campaign slogans.
The mass-printed framed portraits of Trump in oil are about half a meter high and are priced at $125 each. The description states that 10% of the sales revenue goes to the York County Republican Committee.
The York County Democratic Party Office is another scene. There is a small table under the tree next to the house. A group of volunteers who seem to be in their twenties and thirties are busy collecting campaign slogans and flyers, preparing to knock on doors from house to house.
She said that she is most concerned about economic issues and appreciates Trump’s conservative stance on issues such as abortion and measures to increase military spending and local employment. As for the Coronavirus Pandemic,
she believes that Trump has done everything he can.
However, Lindy did not give a negative comment to the Democratic presidential candidate Biden, only expressing doubt that Biden can work for four years and fulfill his campaign promises.
She said: “To be honest, nothing is more divided than it is now. I think that no matter who gets elected, some people will be unhappy.”
The retired old man Ken Stu has lived in York all his life and worked in car sales for 30 years. He accused Trump of failing to control the pandemic and handling the pandemic as “terrible”.
In his view, the 2020 election is “the most important election of our time (the United States).” He has decided to vote for Biden, hoping that Biden can unite the United States again.
“Chaos, fear and uncertainty”
Drive north in less than half an hour to the second stop, the wide and beautiful Susquehanna River. This is the longest river on the east coast of the United States.
The railway winds along the river and is scattered with many traditional industrial towns. Marietta is one of the small towns under the jurisdiction of Lancaster, a major agricultural county in Pennsylvania, with a population of only about 2,600.
In the porch of an African-American home along the street, 69-year-old Rasim Savur and 57-year-old Louis Daki played chess leisurely, and placards supporting Biden were planted on the lawn.
Savur said that he believes that this election is a referendum around Trump, and it is an election of change. He said that the pandemic has changed the US economy and the lives of Americans.
Small businesses have closed down because they did not receive pandemic relief, and people have been driven out of their homes because they cannot pay the rent.
He accused Trump of dividing the American people on race relations and used three words to describe this year’s election: chaos, fear and uncertainty, “because we don’t know what will happen in the future.”
Sakkey also decided to vote for Biden. He said that the issue he was most concerned about in the election was the police’s abuse of violence against blacks, and he was worried about social unrest after the election.
The three words he used to describe this year’s election are: strong-“people have a very strong will to vote”; disagreement-people see things differently; unity-hope that the United States will stop dividing.
“We need a new party”
Along the Susquehanna River to the east, next to Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania, is the third stop. Stilton, a rusty town with a population of less than 6,000 (paraphrased as “steel ton”)-huge in the past
The location of the Pennsylvania Steel Plant. It is similar to many rust towns in the Midwest. On the long main street parallel to the railway, one side is one side with tall factories one after another, some of which seem to have been abandoned;
the other side is a variety of low shops and cheap houses. , There are homeless people sitting or standing on the corner. Along the slope, there are rows of houses, the bigger and more beautiful the houses go up.
Lori Keim, a 59-year-old “Steel Ton” resident, said that she is a registered Republican voter and voted for Trump in 2016, but did not want to say who will vote this year, and described the election this year as “depressing”.
She said that she is a small business owner and runs a small direct mail company. This year, she has sent a large number of campaign emails, and no matter which party is slandering the other party.
Keim said that she does not believe in any media, “It is very difficult to obtain accurate information to make an informed decision u2026u2026 This is my biggest disappointment in this election.” She neither likes Trump nor Biden,” I have to vote based on policy, not their personality.
u2026 u2026 There are some things I strongly support the Democrats, and some things that the Republicans support are also important to me.”
Keim said: “I have always said that we need a new party, a common sense party.”
On October 23rd, Mark Hall, who runs a restaurant, was interviewed in Stilton, Pennsylvania, USA. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Jie
Keim’s friend Mark Hall is in charge of the daily operations of the three restaurants. He said that he is a Republican voter, but he voted for Democratic President Barack Obama in 2012 and supported Trump in 2016.
Even though there are only a few days before election day this year, he still has no idea who to vote.
Hall said that the reason for the hesitation is because every new president has many promises, but none of them seem to take the long-term into consideration. No matter who comes on stage, he doesn’t think it can help his situation.
He believes that Trump’s response to the pandemic is slow and the direction of governance is not necessarily correct; but he also feels that Biden is too old to be qualified for the presidential duties, and therefore feels “in a certain situation where there is no winner.”
For this election, his three adjectives are: indifference-“So far, I don’t have any feeling about who is president”; “responsibility”-have the responsibility to vote, because every vote is important:
“the future” -In his view, hot topics such as medical insurance, criminal justice, gun control, and abortion are all major issues in current American politics. How the newly-elected president will respond to the pandemic and whether the policy will be changed is more related to the face of the United States in the next four years.
Hall said that Americans want to be united, to live in the American dream, and to see progress in the future, but issues such as race relations and the associated hatred and harm do not begin today, but are rooted in American history, causing many differences. And split.
Now the two parties are opposed to each other and hold their own opinions, hoping that voters will stand on the sidelines, but the United States “must find someone who can stand between the two sides and become the future leader.”
Why is Pennsylvania so important?
The U.S. presidential election adopts the electoral college system. When voters vote, they actually choose electors who support different presidential candidates.
Most states implement the “winner-take-all” rule, that is, the president who gets the most votes from voters in a certain state. The candidate received all electoral votes in the state. In the 2016 U.S. election, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton still lost the electoral vote despite leading nearly 3 million votes in total.
Therefore, the weight of voters’ votes in a “swing state” like Pennsylvania in a sense far exceeds that of states with clear party affiliations such as California and New York.
Why has Pennsylvania become the most important “swing state”? Depends on two characteristics.
First, Pennsylvania is a populous state, with electoral votes tied for fifth among the 50 states and Washington.
Second, the population of Pennsylvania is relatively evenly distributed between urban and rural areas, and neither party has an overwhelming advantage. There are densely populated metropolises and wealthy suburbs such as Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, as well as vast agricultural areas, as well as traditional manufacturing and mining that are stained with rust and weather. The party orientation of different counties in the state is quite different.
With election day approaching, the gap in the polls between Biden and Trump in Pennsylvania has narrowed. In the average poll of the US “Clear Politics” website, Biden led Trump by 7.3 percentage points two weeks ago, and is currently only 3.8 percentage points ahead. A poll conducted by the Trafalgar Group from October 24 to 25, which had predicted the results of the 2016 general election, showed that Trump overtook Biden by 0.8 percentage points.
