The 2024 election took place on Nov. 5. Hundreds of CWU students flooded the SURC to do their civic duty and cast their vote. The night ended with former president Donald Trump, being elected as our upcoming 47th president. This was an election that caused an outpour of emotions from most of the people in the United States, both good and bad. But what do some of the women of Ellensburg think?

The League of Women Voters is an organization dating over 100 years back. Their main focus is advocating for democracy through educating people on the importance of it. Some of these women could be seen on election day in the SURC helping students register to vote as well as helping them in how to send out their ballots. These women describe their organization as non-partisan, not directly supporting any one candidate, but definitely not neutral.

“I have a feeling in my soul that what we have grown up with… feeling that women were empowered to do what we wanted, to be what we wanted,” Ramona Bryant, league treasurer, said. “Our right to vote was an innate thing, and it has only been in place a little over 100 years. I think we can run the risk of losing that.” Bryant feared a future possibility for losing women’s rights. Robbie Soltz, league president added on. “I think the role of women is unclear right now,” Soltz said. “I think that reproductive rights, LGBTQ communities, all of this is very unclear to me and I’m sure it’s unclear to the friends and the people of those communities.”

A main concern for these women was also the future of the United States democracy. “We need to have a very clear vision in our minds about what democracy is,” Stoltz said. “And how it is either being used or not being [used] in just about every aspect of our lives… We need to be careful that that does not slip away.” While the United States was not founded on pure democracy from the very beginning, it has been shown throughout the years that the right for the American people to choose their own representatives is one of the most important aspects of the United States government.

So what’s going to happen in these next four years? Will there be any lasting effects on the country even after this next presidency? Stoltz said“I think it’s a very slow process to do and to undo. I think some things can be done by a wave of a hand by a president and then making that a long lasting thing, [and] I think some things take longer… But is that a forever process? I don’t think so.” Bryant echoed Stoltz thoughts. “A lot of academics and things I’ve read have pointed to… that it will take 10 years for things to sort out,” Bryant said. It’s speculative of course… but I think it’s a reasonable expectation”.

Like previously stated, there are mixed emotions across the entire country due to the results of the elections. There are people who are excited that the candidate that they believe in won, but there are also people who may be worried. So what can these people do? It was best said by Bryant, “Don’t give up.”