It’s election day south of the border and many living north of the 49th parallel will be paying close attention — including in Durham.
But according to experts, it could be days before we find out who won — and how the outcome will impact Canada.
“This feels like such a monumental election that I that I wanted to plant a flag of sorts,” said Lindsay Malloy, an American living in Canada.
To say the 2020 U.S. presidential election is important to Malloy is an understatement. Among the Halloween decorations on her front lawn, she has a Biden Harris sign.
“In 2016, I voted from the public library in Miami and this year I faxed my vote from Canada,” said Malloy.
Malloy moved to Whitby three years ago.
The Democrat says she’s been glued to election coverage for months and will be Tuesday night.
“I’m worried about getting my hopes up too much but I’m hoping that the right thing happens today and I’m scared that it’s not going too,” said Malloy.
“It’s going to be tense, very tense,” said Tim MacNeill, Ontario Tech University political science associate professor.
MacNeill has been closely following the campaigns. He says after what happened four years ago, predicting a winner is a fool’s game and Canadians will be impacted.
“If there’s any question about who wins this election and there could be and that could create a lot of turmoil, and even now the world is holding their breath. People are choosing not to make financial decisions currently because they don’t know how this election is going to turn out,” said MacNeill.
Whether a winner is announced Tuesday or days, even weeks later due to the mailed-in votes, students at Ontario Tech University will be paying attention.
A virtual election watch party is planned, an event McKenzie Morton decided to organize.
“It’s always fun to have so many different thoughts and opinions when you’re in a university setting, there’s a lot of different brains there from a lot of different parts of the world. So it’s just crucial for us to see, it’s almost like a domino effect,” said Morton, a criminology and justice student at Ontario Tech University.
As for Malloy, she grew up in Michigan and spent several years in Florida.
She has many family members and friends who are still down there.
She felt it was important to stay interested, not just for herself but for her children.
“I want them to be engaged enough that maybe they will want to vote someday in the U.S.,” said Malloy.