America Votes
This is my first time in America during a presidential election. Firstly, leading up to this day, there has been a lot of advertising on the news and the internet. There was a lot of mudslinging between the main candidates: 78-year-old Joe Biden from the Democrats and 74-year-old Donald Trump, the current president from the Republicans. However, what I personally appreciated was that the candidates at least met each other in debates and didn’t think it was “not presidential” to engage with their opponents. I don’t know who won those debates (each declared victory for themselves), but Trump appeared more lively than his opponent. After all, four years difference (and at this age, a year feels like two or even three) makes a significant impact.
I’ve heard a lot of discussions and criticisms from our Russian news channels. They say that the voting system here is not a popular vote, but rather through electors, and that voting by mail could lead to ballot stuffing, that the postal service is unreliable, and that nobody really needs the mail anymore except for email. They mention that there are few polling places and that some people cannot reach them because they don’t have personal transportation, and public transport is lacking in the U.S.
Yes, the electoral college system can allow a candidate with slightly fewer votes to win, and now, with the candidates neck-and-neck, this seems unfair. But if you view the United States as a union of independent states choosing their president, then it all starts to make sense.
The mail here never ceases to amaze me with its efficiency!
Regarding the poor performance of the postal service, I strongly disagree. The mail here never ceases to amaze me with its efficiency. In addition to regular letters, packages are also delivered. Packages are placed right at the front door, and a notification is sent to the cell phone when the package is delivered. Perhaps it’s different in other cities; I don’t know. Of course, there can be misunderstandings and there are some underprivileged areas. However, once, our package was mistakenly delivered to the wrong house, but a notification came saying it had been delivered. Two days later, the people brought it back and placed it safely at our door. We had a similar situation where we received someone else’s package, which the kids then delivered to the correct address.
Voting packages were sent by mail to every citizen eligible to vote. The package was personalized, large, and full of documents. Voters needed to choose a president, a Senate candidate from their state, and local candidates for city government, which are typically conducted alongside the presidential election. They voted for the sheriff, the head of the educational municipality, a state judge, etc., and voted on numerous amendments to state laws. It takes a lot of time to fill out the package. You need to provide your address and phone number for contact. Then, you could either mail it, take it to the election commission, and drop it in the ballot box right before election day, or come in person on election day.
There were many election commissions throughout the city, and a person was not assigned to a specific polling place, so they could drop it off at any nearby location. You could check the location of polling places online on the city map. In larger cities, where people don’t have cars, there is public transport available, so you can always reach the polling place by bus or train. Generally, almost everyone in America has a car, and often more than one. Voting by mail was conducted here until a certain deadline to ensure that the postal service could deliver the ballots to the commissions.
On November 5, 2020, the counting of votes is still ongoing. It’s unclear who will win, as the results are very close. A candidate needs to obtain 270 electoral votes to win.
