A Neuchâtel perspective on the American presidential election which sent Donald Trump to the White House for a second term. Ellen Hertz served as a volunteer in North Carolina, like millions of other people across the United States, she said.
Since November 4, this anthropologist, professor at the University of Neuchâtel, has spent hours on the phone. In particular to answer citizens’ questions regarding the vote. Because, she explains, North Carolina’s Republican-dominated state legislature complicated the voting process by adding additional steps.
Ellen Hertz also spent a lot of time contacting citizens who had already voted, but whose ballots had been invalidated due to errors. His task was to convince them to correct these mistakes so that their vote could be validated.
For security reasons, the adopted Neuchâtel resident chose to work voluntarily in Chapel Hill, in a Democratic-leaning county. Ellen Hertz is aware that in a more rural, more Republican region, she represents “what many people reject. We don’t have the North Carolina accent, we don’t have the North Carolina mannerisms.” If the elections took place without violence, the threat of violence is there, and relayed in the media, “particularly in the democratic press”.
Ellen Hertz will leave the United States this Friday to return to Switzerland. She will keep from her active stay in North Carolina a certain fascination for, she says, these attempts to discourage people from voting. “I’m an anthropologist, I’m interested to see how it happens. »
The Neuchâteloise does not yet know if she will repeat the experience of volunteering during the American presidential election of 2028. /cwi
