Election Night

I should have posted this in November - but it was a busy month . . .  Catching up now.

Living overseas you experience the United States electoral process a lot differently.  It’s not just that your mailbox isn’t filled with all the flyers about the various issues and candidates.  And it’s not just that you don’t have to watch all those political ads or suffer the robo-calls.  I definitely find the constant bickering and mud-slinging very bothersome – my kids pre-school group was infinitely better behaved.

It’s different overseas mainly because no matter how frustrating the foregoing is, you realize that there are many, many people around the world who don’t get to vote or even voice their opinion without fear of repercussion.  You also encounter so many people who are truly fascinated with our process – how it works, what the issues are, how it compares to their system, what we think about it.

Brazil had its elections a few weeks before the US election.  Brazilian elections are held on a Sunday, and everyone is required to vote.  No alcohol is sold, stores have limited hours and everyone goes to the polling places to cast their votes.  They use a thumbprint to identify people.  You must vote, but you have the choice to cast a “non” vote – basically, you prove you’ve showed up, but you can express your dissatisfaction with all the candidates by choosing “no one”.  Candidates are identified by name and number – since many people are illiterate.  Many candidates have jingles made up with their number and loud speaker trucks parade around the city blasting the various jingles.

For the US election, the Recife Consulate had a party celebrating the US electoral process and I was lucky to get asked to head up the planning team.  We had a great time finding ways to celebrate our process – of course keeping it strictly non-partisan.

For the party, we had life-size cutouts of the candidate – 

and many people had their pictures taken that way.   

We had several news feeds – both local (TV Globo) and international (BBC).   

 

We decorated with lots of red, white, and blue helium balloons, glitter, stars and stripes and Republican and Democrat stickers and pins.

We even had a map of the US showcasing the Electoral College.  As each state was called, we covered the state in either red or blue stickers.  

Along with the map, we had a presentation explaining the Electoral College, and presentations explaining the differences between the two candidates and the two party platforms. 

Our fearless leader - in perfect Uncle Sam attire!

 All of these were in Portuguese of course – kudos to the presenters!

Our ballot box - President Barack Obama took 95% of the vote.

And I couldn't have done it without my amazing team!