In this companion episode to our coverage of pre-election visuals, Christine and JJ discuss images of voters casting their ballots, neighbourhood polling stations, and the dedicated election staff and volunteers working in extraordinary conditions. Then they scan the morning papers to see how last night's front page news was covered in the English-speaking world.
In this companion episode to our coverage of pre-election visuals, Christine and JJ discuss images of voters casting their ballots, neighbourhood polling stations, and the dedicated election staff and volunteers working in extraordinary conditions. Then they scan the morning papers to see how last night's front page news was covered in the English-speaking world.
Talk description to me with Christine Malec and JJ Hunt.
Christine Malec:Hi, I'm Christine Malec.
JJ Hunt:And I'm JJ Hunt. This is talk description to Me where the visuals of current events and the world around us get hashtag in description rich conversations.
Christine Malec:It's roughly 9am on the day after the United States election, and after a relatively peaceful Election Day, there's still very much a sense of held breath. Things are not not concluded. But we are going to talk today about some of the visuals from from yesterday and this morning and do our best to stay up to date. So I think, JJ, we're gonna start with some photo essays that journalists have put together from from the voting yesterday.
JJ Hunt:Yes, the Associated Press, there were a couple of different agencies that that put up photo essays from yesterday. The Associated Press is a nice neutral source they've got they supply images and in stories to, you know, newspapers of all stripes, and their images are quite lovely. So all what I'm going to do is I'll just go through and essentially just describe off the cuff some of the images that they have in this one photo essay. And so the cover image, on the website is an image of a black woman with a mask, and a face shield and latex gloves. And she's sitting at a table, there's a cardboard voting booth beside her and she's holding up a pen and a paper, it looks to me like she's about to hand hand hand a ballot to someone and she's probably in the process of explaining how to use it. But again, the face the plastic face shield and the mask and the gloves, you know, just calls to mind what all of the, the workers in in all of these the volunteers and then the ballot counters, what they're having to go through in this process. It's really quite something. Yeah, scrolling through another image here. This is a an image of a man tallying votes from the five ballots that are cast just after midnight in Dix Ville notch New Hampshire. So Dixville Notch, New Hampshire is one of the first places in the nation that declares their, you know, who gets their votes? Who gets and what's interesting is, this is an image of a hand drawn sign, a hand painted sign, and there's a there's a guy with a pen who's literally writing down in a handdrawn chart, you know, is it Biden? Is it Trump or is it Jorgensen who gets the presidential vote? And you know, this is the writing is a little bit it's handwritten it but it looks amateurish and and he's writing in the number five in the Biden Harris column is all five votes went for Biden Harris, it's a really quite a quaint image. A picture from this is taken from above outside very I'm going to guess either very early in the morning or late at night and it's people gathering outside of a polling place to send a school yard and so there are some people who are walking some people who are standing I think it's maybe people about to stand in line or the the line is maybe starting to gather and again people are social distancing as they are standing in line and as they are walking but because this image is taken from above it you can see all of the the school yard designs so all like lines drawn in chalk on the ground and there's a running track with two lanes in blue and yellow that's outlined on the you know on this paved surface of this this playground outside and and the lighting is very it's it's quite dark there are a few lights coming you know that are on in windows that are spilling into this playground but it's a it's it's really either quite early in the morning, I think, or or getting to be evening. Another image scrolling down. So this is in the First Presbyterian Church on election day and it's a group of people at distanced little voting boots, little voting nooks and a lot of these, the little voting boots are high tables, small high tables. And on top are either three sided cardboard boxes. So like little little cubbies made of cardboard. Or they have these that I haven't seen these in Canada before, but they look like Rubbermaid bins, like big plastic bins, but the top folds all the way back, and it ends up then opening up this box into a three sided little cubby. So it's an interesting one hadn't seen it before. And this image inside the church shows a group of people separated, and they're all hunched over. And you know, casting their ballots in the background is simple, modern stained glass windows. So panels in in a in a clear like a translucent panel with maybe a rectangular panel in orange or yellow, pardon me, and a rectangular panel in pale blue rectangular panels and in a purple color. And so that's in the background while these people hunched over in their little cubbies. Another image a group of people being sworn in. So right in front of the camera is a blurry hand being held up. And I'm guessing that's the person who is swearing in a group of workers or volunteers, and then a group of five people all they look to be all Caucasian. They're all facing us facing the camera facing the person holding their hand up. And they too have their hands up several of them wearing two wearing American flag COVID masks, and three wearing just regular COVID masks. And they're being sworn in as election coordinators. The two of them have little labels tags around their necks that say election challenger. And that's that's how they are. That's what they're being called. Election challengers. Another image. This is a a woman who the caption says she is shouting first time voter. And so this is a black woman in a Black Lives Matter t shirt over white long sleeve shirt. And she's got her hands cupped around her mouth. She's leaning back and screaming she's in the middle of a scream. And right behind her is a young black man. I think it's a man might be a woman. head down to low, long curly hair mask on and this person is standing behind this. The woman who is screaming, apparently yelling, first time voter. So kind of a nice image there. And then another image scrolling down a little bit. So there's a man wearing blue latex gloves. These are like surgical gloves and a white open shirt that looks like a it makes him look like a like a doctor in a lab coat. I'm not sure that it actually is. But with the surgical mask the surgical gloves, this white, you know shirt that's open with like glasses and a pen in the in the shirt pocket looks like a surgeon, but he's just putting on the I voted sticker. You know, just above his shirt pocket, huh? Yeah, those are the kinds of images that are that are being shown. There's another image just scrolling down. There's a this polling station clearly has more computer technology. So this is a voting room where the cubbies have electronics in them. And then the shot is taken through one of these booths. So you know, no one's at it. But so you're kind of looking through the booth, you can see the table legs and just a little bit of the technology and you can kind of you know, see what's going on a little bit in the background and there's a little boy who's kneeling on the ground beside a tape arrow that is that has been put on the ground, a directional arrow to tell people what direction to walk in. And this little boy in blue jeans, a red winter vest and long sleeve red shirt. And he's looking at his hand and he's pulling on a latex glove and kind of snarling at it like gotcha, you know, hand in the glove, kind of cute little kid and another image from voters casting their ballot at the Moose Lodge. And so this is in a lodge room. It's got a you know, a fake wood paneling. wainscotting some fold out tables that volunteers are sitting behind a drop ceiling. You can see some of that low drop ceiling hanging overhead and a big moose head hanging on the wall. You know at the Moose Lodge where people are going to vote. So those are the kinds of images a little bit calm, a little bit settling from the Associated Press.
Christine Malec:That is wholesomely reassuring.
JJ Hunt:Yeah.
Christine Malec:I think you had one one incident to describe that was a little less so?
JJ Hunt:Yes. So, you know, one of the reasons we set this time aside to do this episode was because we weren't sure what was going to happen. Was there going to be some drama on election day? overnight, we really didn't know. And thankfully, there hasn't been you know, there's a wind for democracy today. It's that it's that there doesn't seem to have been a lot of drama, so there aren't a lot of visuals to describe. I looked around, I actively searched, I found an image one, there's a man arrested in Charlotte, North Carolina. He was an he's armed an armed Trump supporter who was asked to leave a polling station and then came back. That's when he was arrested. So there were images and some video of this. He's a young white man, very pale skin, wearing army boots, green army pants, camouflage baseball cap, and he's got a very long red beard like halfway down his chest, and an a belt that's laden with pouches. And, uh, you know, this belt also has a holster on it. That is, I believe it's a holster that strapped to his thigh. And the images show the police handcuffing him and taking away his weapons belt and, and taking him away. But I didn't see much of much of anything else. In fact, I went, I really did try and find just to, you know, make sure that I wasn't missing anything. I went on to various news sites, and I went to the fox news website, and they have an article on their homepage. A lot of their articles are shown there are blocks of images that rotate. So the images, the teaser images just keep rotating. And then there's a headline and a sub header. And so there was a block of these rotating images, teaser images of nighttime protests, and the headline, read election rage. And the subheader said, from Portland to New York to Seattle, demonstrations rattle nationwide. So I thought okay, well, here you go. I clicked on that article link. And I was taken to a three sentence article that had no related images.
Christine Malec:Oh!
JJ Hunt:So that was the only evidence that I saw in searching. I think there were some protests in Washington, I think there was some protests in Seattle, there might have even been some arrests in Seattle. But very, there wasn't a lot of coverage for this, because everyone was glued to their screens. Everyone's been glued to their screens. So that's what we've been. That's what people have been doing. They haven't been out in the streets. I think I certainly haven't seen any visual evidence to suggest otherwise.
Christine Malec:Now, I know, each of the presidential candidates spoke last night. Can you talk a bit about the visuals of what that looked like?
JJ Hunt:Yeah. So these videos can be found on on YouTube. And almost every news website will have a link to these videos. So obviously, our listeners can can check those out for themselves. But there were some there were some elements of the visuals that I thought were noteworthy, not surprising, but noteworthy. So Donald Trump made his address from inside the White House. He's the president. That makes sense. And so he he made his address standing at a podium that was adorned with the presidential seal. And he's backed by a row of draped American flags. So again, this makes this makes sense. He's the president that so all of those visuals are in keeping but certainly an intentional, an intentional decision to stand behind the presidential seal to give his late night address. And the room that he made this address in is absolutely packed packed with people. And they're sitting side by side, and only one person in the room that wasn't a reporter. Only one person in the room had a mask on. Oh, and everyone else is unmasked, except in the back row. You can see there are a few reporters who are wearing masks, Joe Biden, he gave an address at like a drive in rally a drive up rally. So there are some people standing in front of this outdoor stage. But there were also cars parked and so when he's giving an address, you hear horns honking in the background. That's because a lot of his supporters are sitting in their cars. He gave an outdoor address because he wasn't going to gather people inside as per their as per their policy, he, again he decided to stand at a podium, backed by a blue backdrop is adorned with a pale blue stars. And, and he's got some draped American flags as well. So again, no surprise for this address, you're going to stand at a podium, you are going to look as presidential as possible for these addresses. And both both candidates made that made that decision.
Christine Malec:It's it's kind of a classic. I know, when we spoke earlier, you said, You wake up the morning after election day, and you look at the front page, and I'm sure that's kind of the sort of ingrained trope that is still true. And I was in our in our pre recording chat, you referred to having looked at front pages from around the world, which I I'm looking forward to hearing how how those looked.
JJ Hunt:Yeah, I mean, I'm sure this is in part my age, but there's some there's something about like waking up and said, What did they say in the paper? What did they say in the paper, and I didn't have a physical paper, I still went online. But I there are some a couple of different websites and news agencies that that collect front page, images of front page papers from around the world. And then I went and sought out some as well to make sure that I was getting a balance. Yeah, so so some of the front pages from around the world. So the Wall Street Journal, it started in the United States. The Wall Street Journal had a side by side images of Biden and Trump, and below that they had a color coded electoral map. red states for Trump blue for Biden, this was this is and was and will for a long time be the kind of map you know, that is used by news agencies to explain how the, you know how the election is unfolding. Whenever a state is called for Donald Trump, it goes bright red when a state is called for Joe Biden it goes blue. If they are leading then it's a paler red or a paler blue and states where votes are not in yet or have not been counted. Fully they're gray. That's how that goes. If it's undecided or undetermined. It's a gray color. Okay, so Wall Street Journal starts with the images of Biden and Trump below that is this, this electoral map and the headline is swing states are tight. And their sub header is Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, not yet called a mid high turnout. The New York Times they have an above the fold side by side images of the two candidates. Joe Biden is smiling behind COVID mask and Trump. Donald Trump is smiling and adjusting his tie. And the headline in the New York Times is turnout soars along with suspense as nation in tumbled, delivers verdict. And below the fold, there are a couple of other are a couple of articles and one of the articles I found an interesting headline there was final rush to ballot box is smoother than forecast. And this is you know, to our earlier point, it just wasn't as much drama people were expecting and thought but USA Today, they had a very large image that fills the entire space above the fold. And inside the picture is of inside a voting station that that looks like a garage. There's a white steel garage door that's on our left. And there are four of these cardboard cubbies that we talked about on the little high tables. And at these four spaced out cubbies three people are ducked inside there's so you can't see their their their faces. You can only see their legs and their feet. But one person one of the four is standing straight up. And you can see it's a man wearing a COVID mask. And the headline there and USA Today is a tense nation wonders what's next. And the sub header is historic numbers of ballots cast amid fears of chaos at polls. pandemic. Yes, that's USA Today. Washington Post their headline is a nation divided. The sub header is tight race high turnout reflect partisan split over crisis. They had three bar graphics that were illustrating the voting split for the Senate, the President in the house. And then they had three images. The first was a large the large image of an outdoor lineup of voters this is you know voters snaking along a road with some green grass in the background. And below that they had images of the two candidates. The Houston Chronicle and the Chicago Sun Times had the same headline which was simply nailbiter. Birmingham News This is from Alabama. Their headline was too close. And then and then they had a, you know, a small paragraph of text, but the headline was too close period. And in the Tampa Bay Times, they had a huge photo of Donald Trump doing a very Donald Trump's smirk where it's kind of a he's kind of pumping his fist in front of them. So it's not up not pumping his fist high in the air, but he's got his fist kind of in front of his chest as if it's a, it's a funny one to describe. So as you know, kind of pushing is making the fist and kind of pushing it forward, not pumping it up in the air. And it's the kind of thing that I mean, I don't know how to describe this, but it's kind of like a cheesy, older white guy dance, where you, you bite your lower lip, and you kind of Um Um Um pump your fists.
Christine Malec:Ha ha ha! Ok?!
JJ Hunt:Donald Trump likes that one. And so he's doing a smirk, and he's pumping his fist in front of his chest. This is the Tampa Bay Times, and the headline is Florida when that's the whole thing. In the St. Louis post dispatch, their headline was decision delayed. So that's a kind of a broad across the US Look, I looked at course of Canadian newspapers, the Globe and Mail, they had separate images of the two candidates that both looking quite somber, and they'd position these separate images. So the two men look like they're facing each other, both kind of older with their eyes cast down. And the headline is down to the wire, National Post big photo of three voters in a gymnasium a lot of pictures of voters in gymnasiums in the with these kind of cubbies, they they photograph quite well. And there's something about the the simplicity of that, that I think sells well. It's it's something we can all relate to. And the National Post headline, wait begins for tense us. The Toronto Star actually had a really interesting one, I quite liked this. This is a front page, a full page graphic. So imagine you take that, that map that electoral map that I spoke up, and you cut out all of the states, the red ones, the blue ones, and the gray undetermined ones. And then you cut them all out and then arrange them. That's what they've done. They've arranged them as a giant question mark that covers almost the whole front page. And that was a little side article. And the headline just says fate of the Union. The West Australian, they have a full page political cartoon, it's almost a whole four full page minus one column on the on the far left, and it's a political cartoon of the Statue of Liberty depicted kind of from the the chest up, and she's covering her eyes with her hands. peeking through her fingers with one wide open eye. And the headline is gulp.
Christine Malec:Oh! Oh! Oh! I like that.
JJ Hunt:Ya, that's a good one. The Australian Daily Telegraph. They have a photo of Donald Trump and Mike Pence. And Pence is kind of looking at Donald Trump and he's standing a little bit further back and he's looking at Donald Trump very, you know, I would say he admiringly and Donald Trump has a magga hat on red MAGA hat and he's raising a fist in a Black Glove. And the caption reads dawn punches on to the end. That's
Christine Malec:Um, what is a MAGA hat?
JJ Hunt:Oh, sorry. That's Make America Great Again, hat. That;s the red hat with the white letters. Yeah.
Christine Malec:Okay, thank you. Got it.
JJ Hunt:The British. So then we get into the UK the British Da ly Telegraph. So they had the ov n above the fold side by side ph tos of Biden and Trump. Bi en's in again a mask, a su gical mask and Donald Trump is smirking. It's actually the sa e picture where he's pumping hi fist. They did that was used th re as well. And their he dline is massive turnout as Am rica decides. The times they ha e an above the fold photo of th ee people voting in what lo ks like a school gymnasium. Th re's an American flag with a ba d eagle painting on the wall. It looks like it's done by kids, ma be in you know sections of ca dboard and then all glued to ether on the on the wall of th s gymnasium. And again, vo ers standing at these little pl stic boots on perched on tall ta les that headline in the ti es, America decides its fate. An they have three sub headers, re ord number of voters go to po ls and us. Trump tells staff lo ing is never easy. And Biden pr dicts White House move. Yeah, an the Guardian they have a ph to you know, above the fold ph to of Biden making his way th ough a crowd. Everyone's in CO ID masks and the headline is ba tle for America's soul. And th n one last one. This one's ki d of funny. This is the UK is Da ly Star. And so they have a bi composite image of an Am rican flag with stock po traits of Biden and Trump. Bu it's really all about the he dlines in the star. So, this th s series of headlines in su headers reads, we wanted to st y up for the result, but we fe l asleep. However, we can te l you this old fart wins el ction. And then in brackets at the bottom of the paper, it sa s he's either 74 or 77, ei her a lunatic or senile, and he ll probably be due a littl nap right about now. Oh, yeah. That's the star for you. That' the Daily Star.
Christine Malec:I'd like to reiterate what JJ said earlier, which is hats off to the election staff and the volunteers. I read somewhere that in New York at least they were working from 6am to 10pm, which is absolutely heroic, and as you said, JJ under under very strange circumstances. So hats off to everyone who, who got out to vote and who who stepped up to to work or to volunteer and up here north of the border, we have our fingers crossed for for all of you in the US. We love making this podcast. If you love hearing it, perhaps you'll consider supporting its creation and development by becoming a patron. We've set up a Patreon page to help cover the costs of putting this show together. You can contribute as a listener or as a sponsor to help ensure that accessible and entertaining journalism continues to reach our community. Visit patreon.com slash talk description to me that's pa t ar e o n.com slash talk description to me have feedback or suggestions of what you'd like to hear about here's how to get in touch with us. Our email address is top description to me@gmail.com. Our Facebook page is called talk description to me. Our website is top description to me.com and you can follow us on Twitter at talk description.