Caitlin Hardee, an American who has lived in Berlin for almost 10 years, slept badly next to her laptop on Tuesday night while waiting for results she knew wouldn’t come in the morning. With the presidential election still undecided until Saturday, Americans in Berlin didn’t get much sleep last week.
Because Donald Trump hinted that he would declare victory before all the postal ballots were counted, Democrats Abroad, the overseas branch of the Democratic Party, held a “Rally in Berlin for Elections.” free and fair in the United States ”outside the Brandenburg Gate. Wednesday to demand that all votes be counted. About 50 people attended the rally without too much noise, but police were present to ensure social distancing measures were followed. Emily Lines, Democrats Abroad vice president, said only two counter-protesters came to the rally. One of the counter-protesters was not an American, but still chose to support Trump and did not wear a mask.
Democrats Abroad released a statement explaining the motivation behind the rally: “To protect the results of this election, we ask that all votes be counted. A legal electoral process is underway in which a record number of voters participated. As this election takes place under unusual circumstances, we must be patient and ensure that every voter ‘s voice is heard: a reliable result is more important than a declaration of premature victory. The counting of the mail-in ballots is especially important for Americans living abroad because they do not have the opportunity to vote in person.
However, Trump had previously declared a premature victory when the results were unclear, as Democrats abroad and voters in Berlin predicted. Hardee expected Biden to win the popular vote, but the election would drag on for days. “I have no idea how long we’ll be on hot coals while we wait for the final results,” she said, “or what kinds of shameful shenanigans the GOP is going to provoke with court challenges, obstructions at voting sites and armed extremist militias threatening voters. Karl Wilder, who has been in Berlin for almost five years, made a somewhat grim prediction. “I think the United States will soon be in the middle of a civil war,” he said. Another American, Charity Klimaitis, anticipated Trump’s refusal to let go of the White House. “To be quite honest, I think Donald Trump is a total dictator and will challenge the election in any way he can,” she said. “I’m really scared, especially for my friends and family.”
Berlin is of course a city of the left and the American population reflects this as well; Democrats Abroad have their largest chapter here with 5,000 members. The organization pushed particularly hard this year to increase the turnout in Germany. Lines said the membership was 16,000 this election season, up from 10,000 in 2016.
Democrats abroad typically campaign at events around Berlin, but with the coronavirus outbreak, voter registration has become much more difficult. Instead, Lines said Democrats abroad have turned to telephone banking to register more voters in Berlin. Their efforts seem to have borne fruit; Out-of-country voting is expected to double this election season by just 7% in 2016.
Although the organization clearly leans to the left, Lines says the organization’s purpose goes beyond partisan politics. “We are called Democrats overseas and we are part of the Democratic Party, but our main goal is to get people to vote and help them to vote,” she said. “Our job is to let them know that they can vote and that they have to vote.”
Democrats Abroad isn’t the only organization working to get Americans overseas to return the ballots. Republicans Overseas, the international branch of the Republican Party, was busy on election night speaking on German television programs such as Phoenix Runde and Das Erste. However, James Tiedeman, a representative of the organization, praised Democrats abroad for their efforts to register voters in Germany, but attributed this power to their funding by the Democratic Party.
Lines said that while the party supports the organization internationally, the assumption that these funds end up in specific chapters is incorrect. “All of the organization that takes place on the ground here in Germany and all other countries is funded by donations from members,” Lines said. “We are an organization run by volunteers.”
Although Republicans Overseas is based in Frankfurt and does not have a Berlin chapter, Tiedeman said he believed it would be “a landslide victory for Trump”.
The rest of the world also seems to be paying close attention to elections. Here in Berlin, Americans have expressed frustration with the scrutiny that states are currently undergoing. “A lot of my classmates have a very negative view of Americans, which is quite frustrating,” Klimaitis said. “I think there’s a lot of attention on ‘why would Americans vote Trump’, but they don’t understand things like voter suppression, the electoral college, and how Trump is breaking the rules. This is a modern fight for democracy, and America needs its allies to step in where government fails.
On Friday night, the media called the race for Joe Biden and Americans everywhere were celebrated. A group gathered on Sunday afternoon outside the Brandenburg Gate to toast the new administration. Americans applauded Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and expressed relief that Trump was removed from office. Miley Cyrus’ Party in the USA echoed around Pariser Platz as the Americans in Berlin rang for the next four years.
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through Adri
November 9, 2020
in People, Stories
