The Washington Post, December 2023
Arlando Monk is an increasingly rare find in presidential politics: a voter whose choices matter. The Black entrepreneur lives in Wisconsin, one of seven expected battlegrounds in the 2024 presidential race. He is registered to vote but not sure he will bother. He has not decided between former president Donald Trump or President Biden, if those are the major-party options.
“If it’s between them, I’m going to say this: Trump was hilarious. He was hilarious,” said Monk, 43, who lives in the Milwaukee area. Biden, meanwhile, has not delivered the change he expected, leaving Monk unsure. “I would say, it’s kind of up in the air.”
If U.S. presidents were selected through the principle of “one person, one vote” that governs legislative races, the ballots of undecided swing-state citizens such as Monk would be worth just as much as the other 150 million or so Americans who are expected to vote next year.
