The US presidential election is today. Photo / File
The US presidential election is today. Photo / File
The United States Presidential election will take place today (NZ time), and most polls indicate that Democratic challenger Joe Biden holds a lead over incumbent Donald Trump.
However, Trump's victory in 2016 over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton was seen as an upset and Americans living in Whanganui aren't ruling outsomething similar happening in 2020.
Artist Lynn Hurst, originally from Kentucky, will be gathering with friends in Whanganui to watch the result come in today.
Hurst said she still had three brothers in the States - two of whom voted for Biden.
"One's a Catholic deacon, one's an engineer and one is a financial advisor at Morgan Stanley," she said.
"My middle brother, the Catholic deacon, is pro Trump all the way."
Hurst said that she thought a lot of more progressive leaning voters didn't vote for Clinton in 2016, but would vote for Biden in 2020 even though "he is not their choice at all".
"The Democratic Party of today is like the Republican Party of yesterday, practically, because everything has moved so far right.
"Biden doesn't look like a Democrat in his history, but I think he does go into this election with a plan that's aspirational."
Whitney Cox, originally from Oregon, said that she was "cautiously optimistic" that Biden would win the presidency.
"I'm a rational, database, type of person, and it looks by all accounts that Joe Biden is going to win," Cox said.
"In saying that, I felt the exact same way four years ago. If it wasn't for that, you'd look at the stats and think this would be a pretty boring, straightforward kind of thing.
"It just feels like there's this emotional part of your brain that's telling you not to trust any of that (polls).
Cox said that a lesson for her from the last election was the fact that Trump was an "anomaly" in terms of how politicians spoke and behaved.
"It seemed so easy to dismiss him, like 'of course that wouldn't be accepted', but now my barometer of what's accepted in American politics has really shifted. It all feels much more up in the air than it used to.
The "best case scenario" for a Biden presidency would be for him to spend four years "making it okay for Democrat and Republicans to work together", Cox said.
"As much as I'd love to see everyone have healthcare, which in America is seen as a radical left-wing stance, I would settle for a real toning down of all the bickering and arguing over stuff.
"If Trump has another term, I think that America's international standing would be kind of gone.
"We'll see a big shift of International power, which will probably lean towards China."
Whanganui's Lynn Hurst sent her vote to Wyoming via fax. Photo / Supplied
Beth Savage cast her vote from Whanganui via mail in September, and said the diversity of the US was the "key to making a healthy system", but that the current administration hadn't brought Americans together "as best as it could".
"I don't think the Democrat's have all the answers, and I don't think the Republicans have all the answers, but I definitely don't think that this Republican party as it stands is the way forward," Savage said.
"America is like your whanau, and we love our whanau. We might have a crazy uncle who's got some issues, but I still love him and I still want the best for him. That's kind of where I am with America right now."
