Brooks: Fear, hope and the 2024 election in Pandora’s ballot box

The early voters arrived at their polling place in a clatter of skateboard wheels and excited chatter.

Tucking their boards under their arms, they nodded to election judge Beatrice Owen and headed in to cast their vote.

It was a small moment, but it made her smile. She holds on to the memory, one of her favorite Election Day recollections, during the long days she and other members of the League of Women Voters spend registering voters and the even longer nights at candidate forums for lesser-known races you have to flip your ballot over to see.

“This is your country,” said Owen, president of the League of Women Voters of St. Paul. Voting, she said, is a responsibility and a civic duty.

In an election cycle churning with anxiety, stress and rage, Owen still sees Minnesotans approaching the ballot box with all the hope and enthusiasm of a first-time voter on a skateboard.

“I think, overall, people are kind of excited,” she said. Excited enough to research the constitutional amendments on this year’s ballot, excited enough to read up on the down-ballot judicial candidates, excited enough to walk up to a League of Women Voters booth at an event and learn more. “It’s like they’re saying ‘I’m taking responsibility for my country.’ I think that reflects in a positive, upbeat attitude.”

Hearing about positive, upbeat voters is a pleasant change from news of a stressed-out, doomscrolling electorate lying awake at night wondering what is going to happen to those of us on Donald Trump’s ever-growing enemies list.

The 2024 presidential election is tying us in knots. The American Psychological Association’s annual Stress in America report finds a stressed, anxious nation where politics is fraying families and fueling fears about the nation’s very future.

Doomscroll long enough and the ballot box starts looking more like Pandora’s box from the Greek myths, poised to unleash misery within the week. Seven out of 10 adults in the stress survey were worried that this election will lead to violence. Again. More than half wondered if the 2024 presidential election could be the end of American democracy.

However, just like the myth, when you lift the lid of the report and all the bad stuff flies out, one thing remains. Hope.

Three out of five Americans report feeling hopeful about this election. The majority believe it will lead to a better, more inclusive future for the country. Most say they intend to vote this year, and more than half said their worries about the state of the nation prompted them to volunteer or support causes they believe in.

Men were more likely to report feeling upbeat in the survey than women. Women have a lot more to lose.

If you’re feeling stressed, that just means you understand how much is at stake. Take care of yourselves. Check out any one of the zillion election self-care guides online. Turn off your phone if you need to. Listen to one of those election stress playlists if it helps. Visit the League of Women Voters site or their vote411.org election hotline and learn everything you can about what’s on the ballot, where you can vote and how elections work in Minnesota.

Then head to your polling place by Nov. 5 with all the intensity and sense of duty as a first-time voter on a skateboard.