US Election: How Americans in Galway were able to cast their vote

By Isaac O’ Connor

On 6 November, Donald Trump emerged victorious in the US Presidential Election, winning over his democratic opponent, Kamala Harris. 

More than 150 million votes were cast and counted in the past few days.

Poll centres across the States opened their doors on 5 November, but for Emmett Shea, an American-exchange student living in Galway, his voting process began months ago.

Pennsylvania

Emmett was raised in New York but lives in the state of Pennsylvania, which was being labelled as a major ‘swing state’ in the run-up to the US presidential election.

A ‘swing state’ is a US state where both major political parties, democrats and republicans, have similar levels of support amongst the voters. 

Pennsylvania as a state carries 19 Electoral College votes and with Donald Trump having secured the majorly contested battleground state, he has become the second Republican nominee to do so since 1988.

Trump won Pennsylvania in the 2016 race against Hillary Clinton but lost it in 2020 to Joe Biden.

Voting from Galway

“My voting process was pretty difficult, it started in the summer before I arrived in Galway,” Emmett said.

The process involved making sure he was registered to vote and updating his declared address, as well as corresponding with his home university in Pennsylvania before he flew across the Atlantic to begin his studies at the University of Galway.

“Prior to yesterday (5 November) Pennsylvania was considered to be a toss-up, obviously the State I’m voting in would be very competitive so it’s definitely on the top of your mind.”

Once he had arrived and settled in Galway, Emmett was able to request his mail-in ballot from the Pennsylvania Department of Elections, who emailed him his secure form roughly a month ago.

Contained within that email was a password-protected PDF, where he could access his unique ballot and ballot identification. 

It was then a matter of printing out his ballot, which he credits his friends for making possible, and filling it out.

“I was very privileged in the sense that my parents came right as I was filling out my ballot, so I gave the ballot to them already sealed,” he explained.

Emmett’s parents were then able to mail it once they had returned to America.

He made sure to highlight how this would not be the standard practice and just a brush of good luck and excellent timing.

He was then able to track the status of his ballot through the Online Absentee Voter Ballot Tracker in Pennsylvania.

Emmett described the process as lengthy and that there were ‘little challenges’ that took time to navigate.

“Unlike most countries, you cannot vote in the US at an embassy, so I can’t go to Dublin for example. I can’t go to D2 and vote, that’s not possible.”

He also revealed that declaring your address on your voter registration, while moving abroad is a very complicated task. 

He was not sure what his exact address in this new country would be which proved to be an issue. 

Luckily, he had assistance from professors and the resources in his home university in Pennsylvania who aided him in making sure everything was up to par and complicit with voting requirements.

The importance of casting a vote

Despite the little challenges, Emmett was not deterred from casting his vote. 

“Something that I was looking forward to doing was voting from abroad, about a place I really care about, as well as issues I really care about.”

“I think it was very important for me to participate especially living in a state like Pennsylvania.”

“Growing up in New York, it’s kind of hard to voice your vote federally because New York is going to go blue no matter what, whereas Pennsylvania is very much a swing state, so you do have an incentive to go vote.”

“I was definitely in the mindset that Kamala Harris would do well and would win, so I think from there that was something that I was really eager to show, and to show my commitment to democracy, my commitment to American values, my commitment to social equality and giving people an opportunity and the values that I think America holds and I think that she would hopefully hold them as well,” said Emmett.

Kamala Harris’ Concession

Vice President Kamala Harris officially conceded the election during a speech on November 6, where she said that while she does concede the election, she does not concede the ‘fight that fuelled this campaign’.

“On the campaign I would often say when we fight we win, but here’s the thing, sometimes the fight takes a while, that doesn’t mean we won’t win, the important thing is don’t ever give up,” said Harris, during her concession speech.

To hear from Galway’s American lecturers on the US election, click here.