By Gram Slattery, Tim Reid, James Oliphant and Gabriella Borter

BELLEVUE, Pa. (Reuters) – Danielle Trenney, a 39-year-old project manager from western Pennsylvania, is so worried about Tuesday’s U.S. presidential election that she decided to put up a Christmas tree Christmas early this year to distract his family. things.

Trenney said she knows of other families doing the same in Bellevue, a Pittsburgh suburb and a popular electoral hotbed for both Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump, rivals in a race that analysts say will be played out until the end.

“I’m just trying to ease the anxiety,” said Trenney, who voted for Harris before Election Day on Tuesday. “Anything and everything to distract, ‘Oh my God, what’s going to happen?'”

Sitting on a nearby park bench was Jennifer Bunecke, 68 and a retired graphic designer who plans to vote for Trump. Bunecke is so fed up with the acrimony, incessant calls from pollsters and campaign ads bombarding her in the battleground state of Pennsylvania that she prefers to disconnect entirely.

She spent a good part of Saturday reading a booklet of baking recipes to keep calm. “I have never been in politics. I was not raised in this environment,” she declared.

On the eve of the election, America is stressed. Like really. Faced with two candidates and radically different visions of the country’s future, voters are bracing for the results and fearing the possible unrest that could ensue.

In recent days, Reuters correspondents spoke with more than 50 voters in the seven states competing to determine the next president. They encountered a nervous electorate: worried about what the country would look like if its preferred candidate lost. I’m afraid the other side will make trouble. We fear that the political divide will only widen.

Some turn to religion, others to yoga, swimming or bodybuilding. Some follow the news closely, while others have turned off their TVs and smartphones to lose themselves in books or take long walks outdoors.

“I wish my smartphone was smart enough to know that I already voted,” said Lynn Nicholson, 72, a Harris voter in Marietta, Ga., who found refuge from the deluge of election ads by walking , gardening and photographing. “It’s overwhelming.”

Todd Harrison, 49, of Canton, Ga., a pest control specialist who leans Trump, said he stopped watching sports on television because of the deluge of political ads.

“The closer I get to the election, the angrier I get,” Harrison said.

FEARS OF TROUBLES

Many voters expressed concern about what might happen after the election, especially if Trump loses. They fear a wave of trials and legal hearings, demonstrations, even violence.

Trump claims the only way Democrats can win is to cheat. Harris said she was prepared to take on Trump if he prematurely declared victory.

Sherry Gay-Dagnogo, a 57-year-old Harris supporter in Detroit, said she was concerned about what Trump’s incendiary rhetoric might provoke.

“It’s like he’s setting off a base of violence in advance,” she said. “It’s scary.”

But Lillian Hall, a 68-year-old former teacher and retail store owner from Hendersonville, North Carolina, and a Trump supporter, said she was afraid there would be riots if Harris lost.

“I think there will be anger like we haven’t seen yet if Trump wins,” Hall said.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll last month found widespread concerns that the United States could see a repeat of the unrest that followed Trump’s 2020 election defeat, when then-President’s false claim that his loss was the result of fraud incited hundreds of supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol.

Some 74% of registered voters who responded to the survey Oct. 16-21 said they fear extremists will commit violence if they are unhappy with the election results. Democrats were the most likely to think this: 90% of them agreed, compared to 64% of Republicans and 77% of independents.

A few voters said in interviews that they were trying to channel their concerns into helping turn out the vote for their candidate.

Shirley Easton, an 85-year-old Tucson, Ariz., resident who described her mental state as “scared,” said she sent postcards to persuade people to vote for Harris.

Easton said she fears for the future of her seven granddaughters after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 overturned its landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide.

“For my grandchildren, I am very afraid,” she said.

Lisa Fields, 60, a marketing professional, was so worried that she left her Manhattan home Saturday to knock on Trump’s doors in Delaware County, a critical Philadelphia suburb.

She hopes Trump will bring peace to the Middle East and the country will become more unified, regardless of who wins.

“We must come together for the common good. And I’ll focus on that the next day, because even though I don’t agree with people voting the other way, they’re entitled to it and that’s the beauty of America,” Fields said .

Other voters said they were trying to disengage from the election as much as possible.

Jean Thomson, 63, an executive coach in Marietta, Ga., who voted for Harris, said the dozens of political flyers that arrive in the mail go straight into her trash.

“I don’t even look at them,” she said, adding that she meditates and spends more time in nature to cope with her stress.

Not everyone went into the woods.

When the results start coming in Tuesday, “I’ll be watching with my Xanax and my bottle of sauvignon blanc,” said Gillian Marshall, a 55-year-old Lyft driver in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Marshall, a Democrat who said she voted for Harris, echoed a sentiment that was almost universal across the political divide.

“I just want this nightmare to end.”

(Reporting by Timothy Aeppel, Gabriella Borter, Helen Coster, Stephanie Kelly, Nathan Layne, Jeff Mason, Tim Reid, Jarrett Renshaw, Liliana Salgado, Andrea Shalal, Gram Slattery and Alexandra Ulmer. Writing by James Oliphant; editing by Colleen Jenkins and Howard Goller)