Posted on 11/03/2004 11:33:34 AM PST by Pikamax
'Overseas' Americans play smaller role
By TRACI CARL
Associated Press Writer
MEXICO CITY — Some spent months campaigning overseas, and they turned out in growing numbers to cast absentee ballots. But the votes of Americans living in Mexico, Canada, Europe and Asia not only didn't play a key role in this election — many didn't even get a chance to be counted.
Democratic candidate John Kerry conceded defeat to President Bush today, even though 5.5 million-6 million absentee and provisional ballots had yet to be tallied.
In 2000, Bush's victory was certified only with the overseas ballots. That fact encouraged a dramatic rise in overseas registration and an increase in political activism abroad leading up to this election.
It was no different on election night, as Americans around the world packed U.S. Embassy election bashes or opted for smaller, partisan gatherings.
All agreed they had taken a much greater interest in this year's election, citing concern about U.S. foreign policy, terrorism and the role of overseas votes in the last election.
In Mexico — home to an estimated 1 million Americans, more than any other foreign country — a hushed crowd of Kerry supporters packed a small bar to watch as states fell to Bush.
"I'm not leaving until I know my boy won!" said Eric Larrondo, 26, a Kerry volunteer who became involved in politics after losing several friends in the Sept. 11 attacks.
Larrondo, who grew up in New York, said he had Kerry supporters asking him yesterday how they could register at the last minute.
"I had a person knocking on my door wanting to vote, and I had to turn them away," he said.
At Planet Hollywood in Paris, bleary-eyed election watchers guzzled coffee and stayed glued to big-screen TV sets as an all-night election party stretched past sunrise.
"I'm really glad all this is coming to an end. I just want it to be over," said Jake Tyshow, a 29-year-old corporate lawyer from Maple Grove, Minn., wearing a Bush-Cheney baseball cap in a room full of Kerry supporters.
Tyshow burst into applause as Bush won Florida. He was the only one clapping.
"This is what it's like to be a Bush supporter in France," he said.
Later, a group of Kerry supporters staggered out onto the Champs-Elysees looking lost.
"It's been quite a depressing evening," 29-year-old Texan Bradley Peichek said.
At downtown Berlin's Potsdamer Platz, where a few hundred people gathered to watch election coverage on the big screen at a multiplex, Robert Furlong, 36, of Boston, said Bush gave America a bad image.
"These days, you spend a lot of time defending and explaining yourself in Germany," he said.
Americans in Manila, Philippines, had to roll out of bed early to be on hand at a U.S. Embassy party as the first precincts closed.
With a 13-hour time difference from America's East Coast, U.S. Ambassador Francis Ricciardone quipped that he might ask the food sponsors — including Burger King, Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks — to stick around if the count dragged on as it did in 2000.
"I brought a change of clothes," one man in the crowd piped up.
In New Delhi, about three dozen Kerry supporters gathered in an apartment to watch results come in. They included Patti Madigan, who has spent years living overseas and who helped in the Democrats' overseas campaign.
Madigan said she believed America had lost international credibility over the past four years.
"I have two boys, a redhead and a blond. If people ask if we're from Holland, I say 'Yeah.' Americans are so disliked we've become international pariahs," she said.
to be hated by godless scum is an honor! Let's roll!
Make that an ex-Texan!
"But the votes of Americans living in Mexico, Canada, Europe and Asia not only didn't play a key role in this election — many didn't even get a chance to be counted."
I for one am glad that my vote that I mailed to Ohio is not needed now. :-)
why is it that the media never takes in to account that the absentee ballots also reflect military votes? Also, absentee ballots will be counted, but they won't change the results of the election.
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