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I wasn't expecting election day in American Samoa to be much different than election day everywhere else. I don't know what I was thinking. Everything is different here!
Most residents here are U.S. nationals as opposed to U.S. citizens so they don't get to vote in the presidential election. And in order to vote in the local election, a person has to have lived here for 2 years. Most palagis don't make it that long on our little island paradise since the typical government contract is two years total. So we voted via absentee ballot. This is my favorite part about mine:
Anyway, the local races are very different than a typical U.S. campaign. I heard almost no mud-slinging, heard just a few ads, and most campaigning tended to revolve around free food: have a bbq and talk to the people! It seems very wholesome and old-fashionedy to me. Even though I didn't participate and some see it as a way for the guy with the most money to buy votes by feeding people, I liked it.
On election day, the feeding of the masses was still happening. Our street has a bunch of fales on it. Coming from my house, the first fale on the street was the polling place. They had caution tape around the outside edge to prevent people from coming in the wrong area. And the voting booths were sections separated by fabric wrapped around a few posts of the fale.
On election day, the feeding of the masses was still happening. Our street has a bunch of fales on it. Coming from my house, the first fale on the street was the polling place. They had caution tape around the outside edge to prevent people from coming in the wrong area. And the voting booths were sections separated by fabric wrapped around a few posts of the fale.
Right next to that fale were seven or eight tents set up in front of the other fales with barbeques and sytrofoam containers full of food.
On my way to work (at 7:30am), I turned down at least 5 plates of food, but one place was so insistent I ended up with one. Not that I'm complaining; Samoans definitely know how to barbeque. I've never had better barbequed chicken than the stuff you can get on the side of the road here (and the best part is that when you do have to pay for it, it's only $3 for a plate big enough to feed 2 adults). But I've never seen anything like this in the U.S. In fact, coming from a traditionally red state, I never saw much campaigning at all outside of TV and radio ads. And I was definitely never given a free lunch for breakfast.
Other random tidbits about election day:
- Simon thinks it's not fair to make the candidates race to become president. Because the fastest will always win and don't we want the smartest?
- Go Obama! I wasn't the biggest Obama fan in the beginning, favoring Hilary to win the Democratic slot, but he grew on me. Even in spite of the fact that every picture of him is shot from below and shows him staring dreamily out into the distance. And I think that even though he has his work cut out for him, there's a great deal of hope resting on his presidency. Which is much more than I can say for the other guy.
On my way to work (at 7:30am), I turned down at least 5 plates of food, but one place was so insistent I ended up with one. Not that I'm complaining; Samoans definitely know how to barbeque. I've never had better barbequed chicken than the stuff you can get on the side of the road here (and the best part is that when you do have to pay for it, it's only $3 for a plate big enough to feed 2 adults). But I've never seen anything like this in the U.S. In fact, coming from a traditionally red state, I never saw much campaigning at all outside of TV and radio ads. And I was definitely never given a free lunch for breakfast.
Other random tidbits about election day:
- In AS, every government employee who is eligible to vote, gets 2 hours off of work, either at the beginning or ending of the work day so that they can. Cool.
- Simon thinks it's not fair to make the candidates race to become president. Because the fastest will always win and don't we want the smartest?
- Go Obama! I wasn't the biggest Obama fan in the beginning, favoring Hilary to win the Democratic slot, but he grew on me. Even in spite of the fact that every picture of him is shot from below and shows him staring dreamily out into the distance. And I think that even though he has his work cut out for him, there's a great deal of hope resting on his presidency. Which is much more than I can say for the other guy.
1 comment:
Julia...His dreaminess is why I voted for him. The eyes. I kid...It was a pretty amazing night--people were out cheering in the streets in Spokane. Granted, I live in a pretty Dem-neighborhood.
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