St. Louis Voters Get Real About the 2016 Election

Patricia McClurg, photographed in St. Louis

"Fiscally I’m more in line with the Republicans, but with everything she stands for, I voted for Hillary. And the first female president – that would be incredible. I can’t vote for somebody who has no character—that would be Trump. And I just wouldn’t trust our nation in his hands at all. He’s too volatile, way too volatile.

"My mom's from Chile and my dad's from Argentina. They both came over here and worked really hard, and that was the other thing – they had amnesty to come over here. My brother's a physician; I’m a physical therapist. We worked really hard, to give back to the community now and be working citizens. For him to just shut the door on that and claim that everybody's a terrorist, that’s just absurd to me."

Courtney McDermott, photographed in St. Louis with daughter Maeve Rasmussen, 9, and son Nolan Rasmussen, 12

"My parents always took us voting with them. They instilled at an early age that this is something that is really important.

"Hillary's a feminist; I’m a feminist. She fights for equal rights for women and for people of color. And I think that given all that has happened especially in the St. Louis community, she is someone who will make sure that we continue to move things forward. I think a vote for Donald Trump is turning things backwards."

Shawn Owens, photographed in St. Louis

"I thought it was gonna be rigged, but I’m glad I still can vote for someone else other than Hillary/Trump. I like the Green Party. I wanted to change racism between cops and blacks; including [people] with disabilities.

"Honestly, I think Hillary will win but she is crooked. So I’m hoping Jill Stein does. Not many people have known about her. I just learned about her two days ago."

Chrystal Buchanon, photographed in St. Louis

"The thing with Hillary is that she’s always been about kids. Even when she wasn’t running for president, she has always been about our children. And about how she wants our kids to grow and do certain things and all be as one. She always been like that.

"Donald Trump is really not a politician. He’s a man with money. He’s a rich man. He doesn’t really come down to these type of neighborhoods to walk with the people that are less fortunate than him. He doesn’t really know or understand us the way that Hillary does."

JD Leathers, photographed in Webster Groves

"Donald Trump stands for pretty much everything thats anti- my life…Anti my friends, my family. I really believe he’s pretty much an anti-American and that he only cares about increasing his and his friends' fortunes – that he doesn’t actually really care about America. I'm hoping Hillary will win."

Frances White, photographed in St. Louis

"I'm depressed. Because I’ve never seen nothing like this before – people eating each other up on TV. And Mr. Trump say things that I wouldn’t appreciate my little kids listening to. Hillary encourages the children, and I like that."

Eileen Franke, photographed in Webster Groves

"I wasn’t very fond of either one of the presidential candidates this year. So it was hard to choose.

"I think whoever wins, they need to try and unite the people and unite the lawmakers and Congress and work together. I think a lot of the trouble is that they just don’t work together and negotiate with one another and listen to one another, and try to think for the good of everybody and that they're going to have to give up on some of their ideas."

Janet Thomas, photographed in St. Louis

"Donald Trump is a nut case, and he’s racist, he’s very biased and I just don’t think he’ll be able run the country because he just flips out at the littlest thing. You have got to have some kind of restraint to run this country. If you can’t run one little Twitter account, then he definitely can’t run a country."

Desmond Thomas, photographed in St. Louis

"If Donald Trump wins, leave the country. Go to Canada, Cuba, Mexico, somewhere, to get out of the country. That’s my advice."

Tully Smith, photographed with friend Nathan Stoner in Brentwood

"Donald Trump will probably win the race. He's bringing another aspect of voters that haven’t voted before. People who are in more rural areas are going to be coming out and they aren’t polled as much. I believe that the people who aren’t asked what they think and usually don’t vote – they're going to make a difference in this election."

Alex Barker, photographed in Webster Groves

“I think this election is showing how polarized and divided everyone is getting over the two parties. I’m supporting Gary Johnson as the libertarian candidate. Hopefully we can get him to the five percent so that next time, maybe we’ll have a third option."

George Morehouse, photographed in St. Louis

"It’s time for a change. Men have been trying to do it all this time. Let her get a chance to do it."

Antoinette Lemon, photographed in St. Louis

"It would be nice first of all to have a woman president. And I think that she has our best interest at heart right now."

Jeremy Broadbooks, photographed with Bryce King in Brentwood

"For me personally I don’t want immigration into this country because, some people would say, things like disease or taking jobs away from Americans. I mean why would I as a Republican want to let in all of those illegal immigrants that I know once they get amnesty, probably 80 to 90 percent of them are going to vote for Democrats? That’s just not good politics on my part."

Cathy Flynn, photographed in Town and Country

"I voted for Hillary Clinton. I think that Donald Trump is really scary. She has experience. He has no clue, I don’t think, with what he wants to do or gotten himself into. She's definitely not my favorite either.

"It was very hard to vote for either one of them. I don’t feel that she's an honest person with all the emails that were deleted. I don’t feel that she's very honest, and I feel that the Clintons come with a lot of baggage. But I think she's a very bright person, and I don't think she would get us into the kind of trouble that Trump could get us into."

Michael Orgel, photographed in Town and Country

"I voted for Hillary. I think that some of problems that we're having in today's world are not going to be solved the way we're approaching them. I think that the particular attitude of her opponent is not lending itself to promising negotiations."

Chase Barclay, photographed in Town and Country

"I voted for Hillary. Not really because I’m behind her but because I really don’t think Trump should be in office. Really what it came down to is that Trump is unfit for office. The way he’s acted, the things he’s said. I mean the things he’s proposed have been frankly terrifying as an American and embarrassing as an American."

Dianne Valentine, photographed in St. Louis County

"I think we've forgotten how bad it was when Obama ran – I mean some of the things that were said about Obama were horrendous. So I think that we forget in eight years how bad 2008 was. I think what is hard for me this year is the degree to which Donald Trump has said things and gotten away with them. That I have never seen before."

Paul Martin, photographed in St. Louis County

"I just voted for Trump because I don’t trust Hillary Clinton. Trump may be a radical, but he seems to care. He’s like a normal person— he’s like us. I think that Trump gets it. He’s trying to help everybody out. Where Hillary is just all about making money.

"He’s always said he's going to keep jobs here and bring jobs back. I don’t think he would be a pushover, and I don’t think people can buy him off."

Mike Sander and Bobby Sander, photographed in Brentwood

Mike: "We’re some of the people who probably didn’t make up their minds until about a day or two ago. We’re not sure we did the right thing."

Bobby: "But we had to vote, because we have the privilege to vote."