An American in Chennai: Watching Biden vs Trump 8 kms away from Kamala Harris' grandparents home

8 km away from Kamala Harris’s grandparents’ house, and 8,500 miles away from the White House, I’m winding my day down just as the US polls are opening up. An unprecedented 100 million Americans have already cast their votes via various forms of early voting. I am one of them. When opponents of absentee and mail-in ballots insist on in-person voting being mandatory I wonder what they have in mind for me.

This is the third election I have been overseas for. I watched the press call it early for President Obama’s reelection from Baiyoke Sky Bar atop Bangkok’s tallest hotel. Shots all around. Oddly, I don’t remember what I was doing when President Trump won. Both of those elections I dropped off my ballot at the Chennai Consulate. The official who helped me one year described the Florida ballot as “an arts and crafts project.” This year, due to Corona concerns, I faxed my ballot in. Thankfully, the Florida elections site has confirmed it as counted.

Living in India has given me a helpful perspective on US politics. Wherever you are, people are people. And politicians are certainly politicians. The main difference is that you see the moves here. “Corporate lobbying interests” are “black money.” Times Square digital billboards are countless hoardings and posters. My wife has an Amma fan and mixer-grinder. I got a tax cut. The only one I can’t quite figure out is that in the US, voters donate to the politicians. In India sometimes the politicians donate to voters. Point goes to the Indian electorate. Well played.

It’s really challenging for me to get a feel on which way this election will go by watching it from so far away. On the one hand, 90% of my Facebook feed is clearly voting Blue. However, I also see pictures from a steady stream of MAGA rallies, each with tens of thousands of people extremely amped-up to support their president. We learned the challenges with polling during the last dance. I just can’t get a pulse on things.

Facebook, IG, Twitch and YouTube live streams do help me understand the sentiment in the US as I can, schedule permitting, watch events unfold in real time. My wife frequently cautions me to temper my excitement as she watches me watch protests turn into unrest. Growing up with the unique political situation of the Northeast, she has seen, and understands, political violence. She fears for what the US may be getting itself into. She is particularly concerned that we may not even realize what we may be getting ourselves into.

I don’t expect to wake up to learn of a clear winner in the election. Mail-in and absentee ballots have been purposefully discredited by many. The Post Office appears to be hamstrung either by funding or more nefarious factors. And of course, considering America’s favorite pastime of litigation, there are an endless number of election-related lawsuits working their way through our time-honored judicial system. It seems to be getting stress-tested right now.

Opening up CNN, I see breaking news. Biden has captured 100% of the vote in the first district to report! Ah, it’s Dixville Notch, New Hampshire... a township of five people. I just remembered that they do this every election. I couldn’t ask for a better prompt to put my phone down. Plus, dinner is almost ready, playing with my kid is certainly better than compulsively refreshing the same five websites over and over, and my wife and I are almost all caught up on the series we are watching.

Who knows which way this thing will go and how the losing side will react. However, watching the World’s Oldest Democracy from the World's Largest Democracy, I know that we’re going to be alright.