Madeline Walker, 27, was talking to a close friend about how chaotic Election Day can be, especially in Atlanta, where they both live.
“We were talking about the election and how crazy it is voting here, and we agreed how much it stinks to wait in line and then wait for the results that night,” she said. So they decided they might as well do it together.
On Tuesday, after work, they will first head to a polling site together. After that, they will go to Ms. Walker’s house to order takeout food, drink wine and watch the news.
“I think we aren’t going to know anything tomorrow night,” she said, “but we will watch as long as we can.”
She believes Election Day is something that should be celebrated with people you love, regardless of the outcome.
“There are people in the world who are literally dying right now to have that right,” she said. “I think we should celebrate it. Why not have an election party?”
Ms. Walker began contemplating how she would spend the day back in August, and she’s hardly alone. Many Americans across the country have created elaborate plans for how they want to spend the day.
Self Care on the Agenda
“This election cycle has been stressful for anyone who is paying attention,” said Gregory Littley, a digital creator who is a millennial and lives in Manhattan. “I intentionally voted early so I could plan my Election Day and take care of myself.”
He is a freelancer, and so he has made sure to have a light schedule on Tuesday. He is going to go to SoulCycle in the morning, get a manicure in the afternoon and head to Westville for dinner. For the evening, “I politely declined the three election night viewing party invites for, instead, nesting in my Upper West Side apartment,” he said.
Michael Fragoso, 34, who lives in Brooklyn and works for a hotel group, has Election Day off work and is spending it getting Botox and laser teeth whitening (he also voted early). “I will probably have less anxiety on Election Day before we know the results than in the weeks after,” he said. “Listening to music at my dentist’s office I am going to imagine myself at peace and prepare myself for what might come ahead.”
The Full Carnival
Over 400 people in New York City have bought tickets to the New York Young Republican Club’s election night watch party at a bar in the East Village. “Every TV is going to be streaming the news,” said Alexis Winters, communications chairwoman of the organization. “We will have a Kamala impersonator there. There will be specialty drinks.”
It will be a similar scene in Cambridge, Mass., where Michael Oved, the president of the Harvard Republican Club, said he was expecting around 300 members to attend a watch party at the Cambridge Queen’s Head, an event space in Annenberg Hall.
The Republican club, Mr. Oved said, was “dead” about a year ago before it was revived, thanks in part to a series of high-profile speakers, such as the president of the Heritage Foundation.
“We’ve created a ton of momentum leading up to this moment,” said Mr. Oved, a senior.
Emphasizing the importance of the election, even some people too young to vote are making plans for how to spend the night.
UmaSofia Srivastava, 17, says she will head home from school on Tuesday and spend the evening in her living room with her parents. “Politics is something that we like to talk about at home a lot,” Ms. Srivastava, who stepped down as Miss Teen USA earlier this year, said in a phone interview between classes. “This is almost like our Super Bowl.”
Ms. Srivastava, a high school senior, said she had spent time in recent weeks canvassing in New York and her home state of New Jersey.
Leaning In on the Occasion
Matt Bevens, 39, a climate finance consultant, will be canvassing for the Harris-Walz campaign in Harrisburg, Pa., starting at 7 a.m. “The most important thing that day is to get up early, get the coffee and be there before they get out the door to give them that final reminder to vote,” he said.
It will be far quieter for Matt Frysinger, a member of the Boston University College Democrats, who said he planned to be alone, in his dorm room, in front of an election command center of his own creation.
“I don’t know if I can be in a social setting,” said Mr. Frysinger, 21, who described himself as “nauseously optimistic” about a Harris-Walz victory.
No matter what happens, it figures to be a late night. That is not a problem for Martha Stewart, the lifestyle luminary, who discussed her Election Day plans at the New York Public Library’s main branch where she attending a gala honoring Library Lions on Monday.
“Unlike some of my friends who need to take a sleeping pill at 6 p.m., I’ll stay awake for the whole thing,” she said.
Anything to Forget About Reality
About a week and a half ago, Ariana Bradley, 33, who is a consultant and lives in the Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn, sent out an email inviting friends to join her on Tuesday for an evening of singing, and she included a list of 10 pieces of classical music they would perform together. Around 16 people are expected to participate.
“Choral singing is a wonderful way to be in your body,” Ms. Bradley said. “My goal is to not be looking at the phone every five seconds.”
Jude Webre, 53, a professor of American history who lives in Brooklyn, is planning to spend the evening of the election rewatching episodes of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.”
“I don’t want to watch the returns on television for five hours because I feel like we might not know tomorrow night, so I don’t want to listen to pundits for hours,” he said. “I also don’t want to watch the needle or get too involved in Twitter. That stuff ends up stressing me out more.”
Then there are those who will try to go about their ordinary lives.
Jen Rutledge, 46, who lives in St. Louis and works for a large energy manufacturer, is spending Election Day in Nashville on a work trip.
“I will be in meetings with my phone next to me, watching what is going on,” she said.
For the evening, her company bought tickets to the Grand Ole Opry. “Seeing a country show on Election Day, it will definitely be interesting,” she said. “I think it will be a little bit of a distraction, but I think it ends pretty early, so we will be coming out of the show right about the time we will find out what is going on.”
She said she will probably go back to the hotel and sit in the lobby and watch the news with colleagues until late in the night. “We generally try to keep politics out of our conversations, which is really nice,” she said. “It will be interesting to see the reaction of these people to the news.”
She said alcohol definitely needs to be involved: “Not so much for meetings the next morning, but more just to dull the unease and the ‘Holy cow, what is happening’ part of this.”
The post The Best Laid Plans to Enjoy (or Ignore) Election Day appeared first on New York Times.
