From Washington to Düsseldorf today--the world really cares that we (I, anyway) vote, and for whom
First thing--on the train back from Holland to Germany this afternoon, my cell phone rings, and it's a number from Washington, DC that I don't recognize. That in itself is pretty unusual. It was a German (!) on the line from Washington calling for the Democrats Abroad to make sure I planned to vote. I guess the Democrats Abroad had a naturalized German immigrant making the calls to the D.A. in Germany in case there were any other Germans with U.S. citizenship traveling "back home" that they knew about.
As a matter of fact, I just had voted. When I got home form Paris Tuesday night, my absentee ballot was waiting for me. The Dallas registrar had done a good job, and gotten me my ballot to the correct address in Germany in plenty of time. I filled it out, and my wife brought it to the post office here in our little medieval town outside Düsseldorf this afternoon. The guy in Washington was reassured, and hung up.
Which leads me to part 2.
While standing in line at the local post office, someone behind my wife recognized the envelope containing my US absentee ballot. This is unusual enough, as there are very few Americans here, and certainly only a handful of people who have ever seen an American absentee ballot mail envelope. The guy caught my wife's attention, and said, "I hope that's not a vote for Trump!" My wife, who is German, told the guy (also German) that he need not fear: her husband's (i.e. my) vote would never go to a Republican candidate for President, and least of all Trump. He was also reassured.
No one is taking ANYTHING for granted, and the whole world IS watching.
= new reply since forum marked as read
