Democratic voters watching the 2020 election recall same sense of dread and uncertainty from watching the results of the 2016 election

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Democratic voters watching the 2020 election recall same sense of dread and uncertainty from watching the results of the 2016 election
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  • President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden are locked in a neck-in-neck race for the White House as the results of the 2020 election continue to roll in late Tuesday night.
  • Democratic voters described their experience watching the 2020 election, and how they're reliving the same apprehension they went through in the 2016 election.
  • Democratic voters told Business Insider that they were met with the same level of dread and uncertainty that they felt watching the race between Trump and then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
  • Several states still have yet to be called, and both candidates delivered optimistic (if not downright false by Trump) remarks to supporters late Tuesday night.
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Democratic voters watching the nail-biter 2020 election feel the same sense of dread and uncertainty that they did in 2016.

President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden appeared neck-in-neck as the results rolled in on Election Day. The race was not called as votes were still being counted late into the night on Tuesday going into Wednesday.

Democratic voters who tuned in to watch the results of the 2020 election told Business Insider that they were met with the same level of apprehension they felt watching the race between Trump and then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

"I remember having the same feeling of 'it could go either way,' which gave me the feeling of being sick," Cara Birkby, 22, of Ohio, said of the 2016 election. "I think tonight, it's more like there's no way we're going to get an answer tonight or even maybe tomorrow? So it seems like more of a long waiting game than 2016."

Katherine Hernandez, 27, of California, told Business Insider, after watching the results of the 2020 election thus far, she said she can't be certain on whether Trump or Biden will emerge victorious.

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"I want to have faith that Biden is going to win, but it's also like, I didn't think [Trump] was going to win in 2016, and I had better faith in the American people then," Hernandez said. "I really truly don't know if I feel better this year because it could turn around and Trump could win."

Several states still have yet to be called, and both candidates delivered optimistic (if not downright false in Trump's case) remarks to supporters late Tuesday night.

"We knew this was going to go long," Biden said. "We feel good about where we are. We really do."

Trump addressed his supporters at the White House, falsely claiming victory in some states where votes are still being counted.

"We were getting ready to win this election," Trump said in late-night remarks. "Frankly, we did win this election."

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"This is a major fraud on our nation," he added, without any evidence to support his assertion.

Rachel Chmielinski, 23, of Minnesota, told Business Insider she was working at her college newspaper during Election Day in 2016, preparing a newspaper spread for the winner. She said the staff was so hopeful and confident about Clinton's potential victory that they had already started working on a spread declaring the win.

"We joked about making a Trump one as a backup, until around the time the election started to turn," Chmielinksi said. "Those jokes became a lot less funny, and we had to do some incredibly fast work" upon Trump's win in 2016.

"It's probably misplaced, but I'm feeling a similar sense of naive confidence that Biden will win, but after having the election night I did in 2016, I can't trust that feeling," she added.

Krystal Ball, 22, of California, echoed a similar sentiment, telling Business Insider that she is "more stressed now" as she awaits the results of the 2020 election.

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"I had the mindset that there's no possible way that Trump could win in 2016," Ball said. "And now, seeing how everything went wrong in 2016 and the way that sentiment has not changed for the most part in the last four years, it has me quite worried about what the outcome of this election will be."

"It's really just a toss-up, and I feel like I'm going to bed tonight and not know what is happening," she continued.

Despite the uncertainty of the results of the 2020 election, Emily Pintor, 23, of California, who hoped for Clinton's win in 2016, told Business Insider that her hope for a Democratic victory has only grown in 2020.

"I had faith in Hillary, but this one feels stronger," Pintor said. "It's weird because in 2016, it was dread of the unknown — I didn't know what Trump was going to do as president. But now I've seen four years of what he's done, so I'm not as spooked because I feel like Biden can do it."

However, Pintor added that, in the case that Trump wins, she said the "dread that will hit me will be way harder than 2016."

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