Election Day 10:42 a.m.

At the intersection of East 19th Avenue and Agate Street, a mix of businesses line the road. On a corner, surrounded by falling leaves, houses and restaurants sits Sun Automotive, a staple of the South University neighborhood in Eugene, helping customers since 1997. Across the street from Sun sits bakery and coffee house Sweet Life, another pillar of Eugene that opened its doors in 1999.

Although employees at each business work in different roles and fields, they shared similar election night plans.

“I’m just gonna go home and be with my kids,” said Josh Steinhert, general manager for Sun Automotive. “I don’t want to have to deal with the stress and the worrying of it all, especially because there’s a chance we might not know until next week.”

Across the street at Sweet Life, barista Itzel shared a similar mindset for her election night plans.

“I deleted all of my social media because I wanted to be completely unplugged and just go to sleep. I don’t even want to know until the next day. People like to get ahead of themselves,” said Itzel, before asking if we were sure we didn’t want any more coffee.

Both employees shared a resigned perspective, echoing the opinion that spending the next 24 to 48 hours glued to a television screen would be stressful and fruitless.

“Whoever is elected, I’m still gonna wake up tomorrow and come to work,” said Steinhert.  “it’s important, no matter what happens, for us to be able to unite under whoever is elected and work together.”

Amidst the chaos and pervading tension around the election, Steinhert had a hopeful outlook on the country’s future. Taking a moment after the questions to size us up, he added, “Now, are you guys UO students? We do have UO discounts on all major services. Come by and we’ll fix you up!”