‘There was no sense among the Democratic faithful that they were going to be trounced’
Did you see that coming? Be honest. Did you see the return of Trumpamania happening last week?
Well I can tell you something for nothing and that is that the poor Democrats certainly did not see that tsunami.
Having been on the ground for four days before the election in both DC and New York there was no sense among the Democratic faithful that they were going to be trounced.
And trounced they were as Trump won in spectacular fashion.
One thing that Trump had guarded his supporters against prior to polling day was that the Democrats would try and ‘steal the election again.’
It was vital for the integrity of the result that the process was totally transparent and that is where yours truly comes in.
Along with 300 other European parliamentarians we were deployed as part of an OSCE mission to polling stations across America.
My role on the day was to visit some 15 count centres across the upper West side of New York city and Staten Island.
We had to ensure that the distribution of ballots was in line with State law, that voter scanning machines operated correctly and that there was no intimidation of voters in the polling places.
So below I am going to give you a flavour of just three stations from throughout our day.
4.30am - RISE AND SHINE
With polling booths opening at 6am on the East coast it was important to get up early and be at our first centre before it opened.
We grabbed a cab from our midtown hotel and headed to 71st Street on the upper West side.
Everything seemed calm when we arrived at 5.30am and there was already a queue of voters standing in line at the door.
We showed our credentials to the returning officer and went inside to our station. Everything seemed ok until we realised two of the three voting machines were not working.
In New York people fill out a large paper ballot, which is then fed into a scanning machine and the votes are instantaneously uploaded. Hence how they get such quick results on election night.
On top of that the ballot box that was set up for mail in ballots was locked and nobody could find the key.
Now there are panic stations in the centre. The clock has passed 6am and the door has remained closed and the queue is getting bigger outside.
Eventually the voters are let in with only one machine working and the ballot box still closed.
Both myself and my colleague are looking at ourselves thinking “Oh my God.”
Had this been a Republican stronghold I am sure this incident would have gone viral.
Half an hour after polls opening a technician arrived to sort out the scanning machines. He looked down and pulled up the lead and waved it to the workers saying “anyone try plugging it in?”
The NYPD officer on duty could not help herself and burst out laughing.
Shortly afterwards the key was found to the mail in ballot box and it was opened.
With order restored and our reports filled up from a crazy first polling station we moved on.
1pm - THIS IS NOT NORTH MEATH
As the morning wore on we covered a number of stations across the upper West side.
When I saw one voter walking in ahead of me with a dog that was wearing knitted booties on its paws I knew I was a long way away from North Meath.
Apart from the presidential election there were also a host of other questions on the ballot paper presented to people.
The ballot paper is huge and the writing on it is absolutely tiny.
How elderly people could make out the tiny text I have no idea but everyone took their time and things still ran smoothly.
They also did have one machine in each polling station where your ballot paper could be fed into the system and the text on the ballot would be increased massively and then you could mark your ballot paper on the screen.
These were very big and very expensive looking machines. The cheaper option seemed to me to just increase the text on the paper ballot. But then given the cost of bike sheds in Dail Eireann I thought I’d keep my opinion to myself!
6pm - “TRUMP IS MY BOY”
In the afternoon we made our way out to the Republican stronghold of Staten Island.
The ferry out to Staten Island is free and we joined hordes of people running on board to catch a good view of the Statue of Liberty as we passed by.
We travelled around half an hour by cab from the ferry terminal to a poling district on Keating Place. Our cab driver was a man called Mohinder who was of Indian descent but he was very much in Donald Trump’s camp.
“Trump is my boy” he told me proudly.
For Mohinder and his wife this election came down to the cost of living. Nothing else. Interestingly his two children were both voting for Harris and for them it obviously held a different meaning.
Mohinder was not interested in the comments by Trump about immigrants or indeed any of what of were his perceived negative points. He simply cared who was going to put more money in his pocket and on that score Trump won all day long.
Travelling back into Manhattan that night on the Staten Island ferry and looking at the bright lights of the city I thought about what Mohinder had said and wondered if people from an immigrant background were thinking the same way across the rest of America. If they did maybe Trump did stand a chance of getting elected.
A few hours later and as the results poured in it became apparent that my friendly taxi driver Mohinder had his finger on the pulse of the nation and called the whole thing right!