US elections - the view from afar

In this episode of Voices, three Aucklanders originally from the US talk to Kadambari Raghukumar about their views on the upcoming election in the States. Subscribe to Voices for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Radio Public and iHeart Radio or wherever you listen to your podcasts For Ian Hoffmann, Ira Munn and Maya Henderson watching the election campaign unfold in their home country, the US, has been a bag of mixed feelings.Hoffman, a union organiser originally from New York, arrived in Auckland just before the first lockdown in February, and was involved in the Bernie Sanders campaign of 2016. This election he's been keeping a close eye from afar while casting his vote from Auckland. "My partner and I feel incredibly lucky to be living in New Zealand, but there's a bit of guilt there too. Coming out of a political background in Nevada where I was a regional political director for a labour union, there's that feeling that we could be making a difference if we were in the States right now. But there's also anxiety with the elections so close."Maya Henderson arrived in February too while Ira Munn has lived here for the past five years. Henderson works with environmental and social responsibility programmes, while Munn is an entrepreneur and formerly taught US and world history; and economics at a high school in the US."When in 2015 we left, people asked why are you going to NZ, why we were leaving the United States. The following year in 2016, the internet broke. The Immigration NZ website literally shut down with the influx of people in US trying to access it and trying to find out where to go after the November 2016 elections!" Munn laughs. "I personally don't see a big difference in the two main political parties. Both the Democrats and the Republicans are left and right wing of the same bird."Hoffman and his partner posted their votes from Auckland recently."We were actually able to track it in California and we know it was posted."There's been a serious effort on voter suppression, and in certain states it's incredibly difficult to vote. You've seen lines as long as 10 hours in Georgia."This is decades of trying to introduce things like Voter ID and other laws to make it difficult to vote. The Republicans have learnt that if you can suppress voter turnout, they do well. "We're at least feeling good about our votes in California."Maya Henderson doesn't feel she's missing out on the action back in the States pre-elections but admits to "a bit of survivor's remorse"…Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details