Voters 'holding their noses' on Election Day with help of Sewickley man
George Merrick says he's been a political junkie since he was in college and has never seen a presidential election like the one Americans will vote in next week.
“It's a very polarized situation, and it seems like a lot of people are not totally comfortable with either candidate,” says Merrick, 83.
To bring a little levity to Election Day, Merrick will hand out what he calls nonpartisan clothespins Nov. 8 at his polling place in Sewickley for anyone who will be voting for a candidate who doesn't enthuse them.
“This really reflects the way a lot of people are feeling,” Merrick says. “They may not be comfortable saying it out loud, but there seems to be a lot of frustration that America and all it stands for has come down to two candidates who are so disliked.”
After a long and bruising primary season, Republican voters whittled the field down from 16 candidates to their nominee, Donald Trump. Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton fended off a grassroots challenge from Vermont's Sen. Bernie Sanders before clinching the nomination. Both sides were left with large factions of unhappy voters.
At some point during the campaign, Merrick says the conversation shifted to people talking about who they were voting against rather than who they were voting for. Would-be voters were preparing to enter the voting booth to do their civic duty while “holding their noses,” he says, which gave him the clothespin idea.
Merrick may have to explain what a clothespin is to some younger voters who have grown up with washers and dryers, but there's a long political history to the idea of a “clothespin vote,” where voters remain loyal to their party despite a personal dislike for a given candidate.
Political columnist Stewart Alsop wrote in Newsweek in 1972 of Democrats casting “clothespin votes” for Richard Nixon rather than voting for George McGovern.
As recently as 2002, French voters went to the polls with clothespins in their pockets when choosing between the unpopular incumbent president Jacques Chirac or his more unpopular opponent Jean-Marie Le Pen.
Merrick describes himself as a “former Republican” who will be voting for Clinton on Nov. 8 but says he won't be seeking to influence anyone's vote outside Sewickley's polling station. His clothespins will be free to Republicans, Democrats and Independents. For him, the decision came down to a single issue: the Supreme Court appointments the next president almost certainly will make.
The retired former owner of Isabela restaurant on Grandview Avenue on Mt. Washington, Merrick says he's interested to see how voters react to his clothespin giveaway.
“I hope people take it in a lighthearted fashion,” he says. “I can't conceive of anyone taking offense. But in this election, it's been hard to predict anything.”
Kim Lyons is a Tribune-Review contributing writer.
