For the last months, we were overwhelmed by a lot of information about the campaign (I even got cupcakes “democrat” and “republican” – my favorite product from these election). Fortunately, we don’t belong to a “Swing State”, the State whose vote isn’t predictable, like Ohio or Florida, where the stakes are huge and adds are crazy.
Since the debates in October, the ambiance has become more intense, even if I guess that “The Hope” like it’s said here from Obama’s election may be not that important than 4 years ago – mainly because of the economic situation of the country. There’s not a lot of suspense on the East Coast, Massachusetts is democrat (I like this infographic about left and right in the United States). Mitt Romney has been governor of this State in 2002 though – but at this time he wasn’t so “righty”.
On the “ballot” – the name of the sheet to vote -, American people have to vote for the president, but not only: Congress was in stake and they have to vote also for some local questions. In our state, they have to vote for Medical Marijuana legalization (it has been approved) and for “Death for Dignity”. That’s serious business! For info, France is now discussing a law about same-sex marriage (which is legal in Massachusetts since 2004).
And I finally get how worked the electoral college – this notion has always been pretty complex for me to understand. For instance, in Massachusetts 60 % of the vote was for Obama, so the 11 Electors of this state have all to vote for the democrat candidate.
Tuesday, 8pm. We are eating a burger at U Burger (yummy) and we watched the first results: Massachusetts stays democrat – as New England ant the major part of the East Coast. Florida is pretty tight though…
Around 11pm. It’s 8pm on the West Coast… the vote is closed for everybody. 11.20pm Obama is declared winner of the election!
And tomorrow, back to normal for Barack. He has “du pain sur la planche” (bread on the table in Frenc – which mean: work to do!)
