Shane Cassells... 'My role monitoring one of the most divisive elections in recent history'

“I just want to find 11,780 votes”. These were the infamous words of one Donald J Trump to Georgia’s top election official four years ago as he sought to overturn the 2020 election result.

Trailing in the electoral college vote he urged Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger to find him the votes but the Republican official rebuffed him and replied that the results were correct.

We know all of this because the Washington Post newspaper released a recording of the conversation and so the openly blatant attempt to steal the presidential election could be heard by the entire world.

Yet amazingly it was Trump himself and all his supporters who claimed that the 2020 election had been stolen.

This baseless claim led to the truly unbelievable scenes on January 6th, 2021 when Trump supporters stormed the seat of Congress and threatened the life of the Vice President.

It is hard to believe that there is anywhere in the world that a politician, who openly supported insurrection, would be entertained by the public to run again for office.

Yet in the greatest democracy in the world not only is this entertained but for millions of Americans Trump is deemed a saviour for the democracy he attempted to destroy.

So here we are again four years later and the Don is back.

As we enter the final week of campaigning this election has had it all.

A sitting president stepping off the ticket, an assassination attempt on another and a Kennedy backing the Republican nominee.

After the events of 2020 there is going to be a renewed focus on the integrity of the election process so that there can be no doubt who the winner is when the dust has settled.

Election observers from across the world will be deployed to polling centres right across the vast swathes of America as they monitor proceedings and ensure that everything is Hunky Dory.

And that is where yours truly comes in as I conduct my last election mission after nine years of working with the monitoring organisation.

Two years ago I was present in America as an election observer for the mid-term contest, which was a real barometer on the Biden administration.

I was deployed to rural Virginia where polling centres ranged from high schools, to community centres and even swimming pools.

Myself and my colleague, Senator Pauline O’Reilly, found ourselves walking through people’s yards as we got lost when Google maps let us down.

The parties had gazebos set up outside each polling centre and gave it socks as voters approached, attempting to convince them to vote for their candidate.

It was like Ireland in the 1970s!

What I can say though is that the manner in which the polling centres were run was exemplary.

When voters arrived they were handed paper ballots, which they filled out in secure booths. They then placed those ballots into a machine which scanned their vote into the computer system while also retaining the paper ballot.

At the end of the day a unit was removed from the machine and brought to a central vote centre where results were then able to be declared instantaneously.

First time voters were applauded into polling centres and all the volunteers who worked in the centres would swear a public oath of allegiance to the flag before conducting their duty.

America knew that the eyes of the world were on them after the debacle of 2020 and they wanted to show that their democracy was resilient.

Voters thanked us ‘for our service’ as they passed our observer station in the centres.

Of course the stakes are a lot higher next week and former President Trump is already floating the notion to his supporters that the Democrats are trying to steal the election once more.

The latest Poll of Polls has Democratic candidate Kamala Harris leading Trump 49.2 per cent to 47.5 per cent.

This is going to go right down to the wire with some key swing states basically deciding who will govern the most influential country in the world.

North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia and Michigan are all ones to keep an eye on.

When I am finished my observation duties on the day I know I will be making my way to the nearest sports bar which will be transformed on election night to show all the results coming in from across the country.

History is going to be made one way or another as we will potentially see the first ever woman president elected or the comeback of Trump.

Whatever happens we know it will have an impact across the world, including Ireland.

To those of you who will stay up on the night, enjoy the Gladiatorial battle and let us hope that there is no repeat of the chaos of four years ago.