Elk Grove Voters Say They Want Safety, Normalcy
A common theme emerged among voters who showed up at the District52 Community Center in Elk Grove: a desire for safety and normalcy.
But for different people, that means different things.
“For the last four years, it’s been up and down racist. That’s a bit concerning,” said Lakhvinder Singh, an immigrant and small business owner. “People being attacked who are not white — it is not right. It is not America.”
Per California’s electioneering laws, Singh was sitting 100 feet from the building and holding a campaign sign for his daughter, Bobbie Singh-Allen, who’s running for mayor of Elk Grove.
Mike Ralston, 52, says he normally votes Democrat, but he changed his mind earlier this summer, mostly after the “defund the police” movement.
“I’m not a huge fan of [Trump], but when I started to see the protests and the lawlessness going on — law and order all the way,” he said.
Tyrell Jones echoed those thoughts after leaving the vote center half an hour later.
“I’m voting for Trump, strictly out of like, policies and behaviors of the parties. One side's burning stuff down, the other ones not,” he said. “The violence over the summer was crucial.”
He said a spike in gun sales this year, brought on by the pandemic and violent protests over racial justice, is concerning. “That's not normal. But yet it's expected. People are afraid.”
Jones said he’s not a “diehard Republican,” but he doesn’t feel there’s a place for him in today’s Democratic Party, either.
“I wish there was a middle ground,” he said. “And there isn't — you’re either left, right, and there is no middle. But I think California, and Elk Grove particularly, showcases that middle ground that we can all live in peace, we can have a difference of opinion, and we can still prosper.”
— Nicole Nixon