Americans that live here look to election
Bay of Plenty’s American expats are eagerly anticipating the US election showdown between Donald Trump and Joe Biden — but make no claim they can predict the outcome.
No matter which way the results go, though — and regardless of whether they favour Biden and the Democrats or Trump and the Republicans — local expats expect a backlash.
Katikati’s Dawn Dromgool will be following the results with about 100 others at a watch party in Wellington, describing this year’s as “the election of a lifetime”.
“This is really important to all our families back home, especially concerning the Covid response, and democracy is on the ballot. This affects the expat community too because we have legislation concerning our tax status — how we’re taxed abroad,” she said.
Dromgool, who is secretary of Democrats Abroad New Zealand, says she hopes Biden becomes the 46th president of the United States but believes whichever way the vote goes, there will be an uproar.
She has lived in New Zealand since 2011 but as an American and parent of children still living in the US, she was concerned about the potential of a backlash. “Already shops are being boarded up. There is going to be some reaction but I am hoping it doesn’t come to violence. And I am worried as I have two adult children still living in the States,” Dromgool told the Bay of Plenty Times.
Overnight on Monday, a new poll from the New York Times predicted Trump would lose in four key battleground states: Pennsylvania, Florida, Arizona and, by a wide margin, in
Wisconsin.
If Biden can hold on to his apparent lead in three of these four states, it would highly likely be enough to win.
Colorado-born Sydnee Gould has lived abroad for most of Trump’s term as president, which she was grateful for, but said she was feeling anxious for friends and family still there, as many anticipated riots once results were known.
“I honestly don’t know what to expect with the results. If the last election taught me anything, it’s that anything can happen.”
“I believe America has a long way to go with creating and maintaining a Government that has more representation and less corruption, but I think for now Biden and Harris are the best option we have.”
As a self-described political junkie or “American-phile”, Bay of Plenty National MP Todd Muller will be following the US election results at a watch party as he has done since 1992. His love stemmed from some encyclopedias he had as a boy and grew from there. This term, Muller said he would almost put his money on Biden winning the race.
“The reason for that is the sheer scale of the advance votes and what appears to be in some key states a big list of young people voting, which I would suggest would be more favourable to Biden over Trump.”