Joe Chandler, from Brunswick, Georgia, may just be the only person in the United States of America who doesn’t know who won this year’s presidential election. Two weeks since the final election day, the unconventional artist is still trying very hard to remain oblivious to the result.
It all started when Joe Chandler was invited to a party at a friend’s house on election night, where he figured everyone would be biting their nails waiting to see who will become the next US president. “I was invited to an election party to stay up into the night with everybody gnawing their nails, hanging on and I thought, oh there has to be a better way,” he told Fox News. “All I wanted to do is give myself 24 hours of blissful ignorance.” It turns out that ignorance felt so good that he didn’t want to give it up the next day either, so he has been doing everything in his power to not find out who the president elect is.
Photo: YouTube screengrab
But it’s really hard to believe that someone in the United States doesn’t know that Donald Trump is the next president, unless they’ve been living in total isolation for the past 14 days. That’s not exactly Chandler’s case, but he has taken some serious precautions to make sure he doesn’t find out by accident. He hardly ever leaves his house, which is not a big inconvenience, because he usually works from home, but when he does, he puts on a pair of earmuffs and wears a “I don’t know who won, and don’t want to. PLEASE DON’T TELL ME.” sign around his neck. He also makes sure to divert his gaze from newspaper boxes.
“I divert my gaze from newspaper boxes … I don’t venture out very often, and when I do I wear my headphones and my sign, and people have been very respectful of my decision,” Chandler told TODAY.com.
The day after the election, Joe’s daughter told him “You know, you may be the only person in the country, other than those in a cave or something, who still doesn’t know.” Since then, she has been sending him edited versions of the news so he can keep up to date with the world while avoiding finding out the result of the election.
As strange as his decision may seem to the rest of the world, Joe Chandler claims that being clueless about the result of the presidential election has proven delightfully relaxing. “Having subtracted myself from this political fracas and all of the mayhem of the digital media, I kind of found the center of the cyclone,” he said. “It is very peaceful in my bubble of ignorance.”
As for when he’ll finally be able to find out who the next president is, Chandler told Atlanta TV station WXIA “I’d like to make it to 2020, but I’ll be lucky to make it to tomorrow.”
