US mid-term election result could 'change the world'

Left-leaning voter Isaac Price says every vote counts in the American midterm elections. Photo / Natalie Akoorie

Isaac Price voted "anything but Republican" when he went to the poll four days ahead of the November 6 American midterm elections.

"Right now we need a check on this president – he's basically just out of control."

Price was critical of President Donald Trump, saying he had used "racist rhetoric" in a way that incited violence.

An advertisement Trump tweeted this week has been reportedly denounced by Democrats and some Republicans as racist for appearing to heighten fears about immigration in advance of the midterms.

And on Saturday morning local time he tweeted a picture of himself with the words "Sanctions are Coming" in a Game of Thrones take-off, announcing that nuclear-related sanctions against Iran would resume on November 5, the day before the elections.

Price, a self-confessed "left-leaning" voter, said he believed votes in this midterm "mattered a lot".

The 35-year-old web developer from Long Beach said America had a long history of people feeling like their vote didn't count.

"And the one thing I would say to that; if your vote doesn't matter why are Republicans trying so hard to suppress your vote?"

In North Dakota a street address requirement enacted by the state's Republican-controlled legislature means up to 5000 overwhelmingly Democratic-voting Native Americans face difficulty voting because they traditionally use post office boxes, loose locators or even vouching from poll workers to vote.

"Go figure. Most of them vote Democratic so they are suppressing the vote there."

The anti-Republican feeling has been hard to miss in California but at the Orange County Register, a metropolitan daily newspaper, political editor Andre Mouchard said the paper strives to stay as objective as possible.

"Right now there are not a lot of people covering politics from the middle of the road, we do that – or we try to."

Orange County Register political editor Andre Mouchard says he has never seen a time in US political history like now. Photo / Natalie Akoorie

However Mouchard said despite the paper having a reputation for objectivity, only a few weeks ago police volunteered to train journalists in the newsroom about how to escape should they come under attack.

It comes as CNN, a television media organisation, and others noted for their criticism of Trump, were sent pipe bombs.

"This is very unusual times right now in politics in the United States."

Mouchard said it was finally true that an election could be the most important in a person's lifetime.

"This election could be a change for the world. A lot of people see fundamental shift in the way America is viewing itself and the way American politics is working and the way that American Government is working.

"The United States is more polarised at this moment politically, culturally in every way than it has been probably since before the Civil War."

Mouchard said it was the first time the four House of Representative seats in Orange County, held by Republicans, were being strongly contested and with 23 seats needed by Democrats to take a majority in the Lower House, Orange County would play a crucial part in that outcome.

The newspaper's senior editor, Tom Harmonson, said mainstream media was faced with a world of "fake news" and multiple sources of news, where consumers only wanted "facts" that supported their beliefs.

"That makes it tough because there aren't as many consumers of news that want the discomfort that comes with that truth.

"There's a challenge to their beliefs or a challenge to what they read last night, and they have to think about it and that's not an easy thing sometimes, to be intellectually honest with yourself."

Natalie Akoorie is covering the United States' midterm elections courtesy of the US State Department.