Reflections on elections: some reminiscences

This is the seventh US Presidential election in which I’ve been an eligible voter. Regardless of the result, these are always raucous occasions.

It all started in…

1994: this was the first election where I was eligible to vote. I’d just turned 18 and was in my first semester at university. But for the life of me, I truly cannot remember whether I even voted, much to my shame. I think I did, but…I honestly can’t say. But it was all a bit anti-climactic for me anyway. Whether I voted or not, my first election wasn’t a Presidential one – it was merely the mid-term election, or for my non-American readers, the equivalent of a parliamentary election. Turnout at these is usually much lower.

1996: the first time I can vote in an election, but I wasn’t even in the US to do so. I was studying abroad in London for the semester and voted by absentee ballot. And this was the start of a tradition of sorts, staying up all night because of the time difference. The election wasn’t close, so we knew the results much earlier, but still, it was a long night, going on well past midnight. I had a mini-election party with my friend Todd, watching on a small TV in the kitchen of our halls of residence.

I was used to staying up late for events because of time differences. I had watched a lot of [American] football games throughout high school in the wee hours because of the 5-6 hour time difference.

2000: I was finally able to vote in person, and did so after work. Voting in Massachusetts doesn’t usually have a major impact. In most elections the state votes overwhelmingly Democrat – Republicans like to call the state ‘Taxachusetts’. There have been outlying years like 1980 and 1984, however, when almost the entire country voted for Reagan.

I can’t remember whether Al Gore or George W Bush won this one. I’ll have to double-check Wikipedia.

2004: another election abroad, this time in Nigeria…or rather, Northern Ireland. I was working in Nigeria at the time but had a 2-week holiday in the UK and spent most of it in Belfast, where I had a solo all-night election party, following the outcome on the BBC.

I’m not sure how I pulled this off from Nigeria, but I somehow managed to send in an absentee ballot. And by this point, I had become a New Hampshire resident, and so my vote had more of an impact, New Hampshire being a swing state (albeit with a measly 4 electoral college votes). For my international audience, being a 'swing' state means the race is tight, and the results can swing in favour of one candidate over another, unlike states like New York and Texas, which tend to vote overwhelmingly for Democrats and Republicans, respectively.

2008: back in the US for this one, in between jobs and career ‘changes’ - this is an area I’ve documented on these pages before. On this day in November, a crisp, beautiful bright and blue sunny day, I was finally able to do the quintessential New England thing. After voting, I went to a fairly well-known-in-political-circles diner with my mother in Derry, New Hampshire surrounded by people with ‘I just voted’ buttons, stickers and badges. 

I watched the results on Fox News.

2012: my first election in Ukraine, where the time difference was now 7 hours and the night was even longer. And the start of a new culinary tradition: ordering Domino’s and gorging myself on it all night, until the sun came up.

I’ve always been a big fan of turning things into culinary events, especially when far from home and you want to do something symbolic. This started in London in 1996, with my friend Todd. Even though I’d spent the majority of my Thanksgiving holidays abroad, it was his first time away from home. So he came up with a great idea to celebrate it: McDonald’s. Okay, so ‘great’ isn’t perhaps the best word, but I continued this tradition for as long as I could in the subsequent years, whenever I was away from the US. It wasn’t always doable – in 2004 in Nigeria, where there are no McDonald’s, I had to settle for a Chinese buffet at the most upscale hotel in the Niger Delta region (which is hardly saying much – this place was far, far from salubrious).

(These plans got put on hold for a few years when, in 2006 in the Basque Country, I got a nasty case of gastroenteritis the day before Thanksgiving, which was undoubtedly an ominous sign. After a few years off, I returned to my McDonald’s tradition after coming to Kyiv in 2010, though my memory is shaky on this one – was it 2010? Or was it even later, like 2013? Never mind, I digress.)

2016: my second election in Ukraine, and another all-night Domino’s feast. The results seemed to take longer to come in and I drifted in and out of sleep. When I awoke, in a bleary, groggy state and saw the results on TV, I wasn’t sure if I was still dreaming or not. It was all a bit of a hazy blur.

I’m still a bit old-school with my election coverage: it’s one of the rare times when I rely on TV over the internet. I never watch the news on TV, except for elections. CNN has usually been my only option in Ukraine. It suffices.

2020: my third all-night Domino’s feast. The pizza’s in the oven, staying warm. It’s just after 10pm. Results are yet to come in. I’m half writing this, half following Champions League action, half glancing at the CNN screen, which is muted for now. The ‘party’ has barely got started, but for this year, I think I may need to resort to something much stronger than pizza to get me through the night. It will be a long one, it always is, and the next day is usually a write-off.

But hey, it only comes once every four years. Got to make the most of it.

And now, for the most important part, my bold prediction. I have no doubt whatsoever that the winner will be [editor’s note: DP has now instituted a strict 1000 word limit on his posts, which he has sworn to adhere to. The word ‘be’ marks word number 1000.]

What I’m reading

In a year where much of my reading has taken on an ‘Americana’ theme.

The Soul of America: The Battle for our Better Angels, Jon Meacham

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration, Isabel Wilkerson

Nickel Boys, Colson Whitehead

What else I’ve read in this theme in 2020

The USA trilogy: The 42nd Parallel; 1919; The Big Money, John Dos Passos (what an achievement this was - I now feel more confident taking on Proust next year.)

These Truths: A History of the United States, Jill Lepore

Hotel New Hampshire, John Irving

The Loss of El Dorado, VS Naipaul

Gilead, Marilynne Robinson

Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates

The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead

The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck