Presidential Cheer even in Italy

Upon the news that Barack Obama won a second term as President of the United States, Italy started overflowing with joy and relief. I was stopped by several colleagues yesterday, asking about my opinion and sharing their own about the outcome. Text messages arrived on my cell phone. The TV was ablaze with news. The Italians really follow our election campaigns, especially in the last few months.

In the few days leading up to the big US vote, I had to do my usual explanation about the electoral college vote. Honestly, I never understood the system myself until I started living abroad and had to explain it to others. Funny how that goes.

There are several voting differences between USA and Italy:

1) In Italy, they can vote for a party, but cannot directly vote for the specific candidate representing that party.

2) They only recently introduced the "primaries" and it is currently being performed by just one party: Partito Democratico. And anybody can vote for in that primary election - including people who would be "registered" as voters of a different party, if that were required in voting registration (which it is not).

3) There is no absentee ballot if you live in Italy. If you are registered in Calabria but working in Milan, too bad. You need to get your butt down to Calabria if you want to vote.

4) Referendums are performed as separate votes on different days from general elections. It can cause a hassle to get to your home town to vote, since you do not have an absentee option. It is also a considerable expense to organize the voting centers so every time they are opened, for elections or referendums, it comes at extra cost to the nation.

5) You vote here on Sunday and Monday

6) The vote is a popular vote.

American Voting Pride

I just love being American when I get my absentee ballot notice 9 months in advance. Yes, today I received an address form to fill out which will ensure that my US state election office sends me this year's election ballot on time and to the right place. They are not even legally obliged to send out this kind of announcement, yet they do.

They noticed in their records that I voted for the 2008 elections and thought I may still be abroad so they sent me this probe. I will complete the form, send it back in the mail and am assured that I can easily participate in September and November's voting. It exemplifies real satisfaction towards American efficiency.

This would never happen for an Italian abroad. They were only recently lucky to get even the ability to vote while abroad, finally granted in 2001. (Meanwhile Italians still cannot vote with an absentee status when residing anywhere in their country, even if it is at the other end of it, i.e. a Sicilian living in Milan! This means they have to go "home" if they want to vote where they are residents.)