They sent ballots from Canada. Now, Americans prepare to watch the election from afar

After knocking on thousands of doors during this year’s U.S. presidential campaign, David Shelton’s work is done — now, he’s looking forward to knocking back a drink or two at a local bar on election night with fellow Americans. 

Though he’s a Democrat, Shelton said his get-out-the-vote effort wasn’t really aimed at getting Kamala Harris elected.

That’s because it was happening in Windsor, Ont., and the surrounding region — where an estimated 25,000 of his compatriots live but too few actually practise their right to vote, Shelton said.

“We are engaging in these explicitly nonpartisan activities,” the Democrats Abroad member said in an interview. “We want everyone to have access to vote and we believe that it’s better for everyone.”

Shelton is one of many Americans who have rolled up their sleeves to take part in the democratic process from afar, and who plan to spend their evenings at gatherings large and small across Canada.

About 600,000 people who are eligible to vote in the U.S. election live in Canada, the largest number outside the United States, according to the Federal Voting Assistance Program. That is about 20 per cent of nearly three million people who can cast their ballots from all over the world. 

The turnout among them has historically been very low. Republican and Democratic activists say only around eight per cent of Americans who live in Canada have participated in past elections.

Georganne Burke, a supporter of Republican candidate and former president Donald Trump, said she plans to spend Tuesday evening at a friend’s home in Toronto. 

Republicans are outnumbered something like three to one in Canada, she said, and they aren’t as mobilized or well-funded as the Democrats. 

So, Burke said, there aren’t any lavish watch parties, though like-minded voters still plan to gather. 

“It will be private,” she said. “There will be Americans and Canadians that are Trump supporters there to watch the election results.”

Burke said she has a “pretty good gut” for when things are going their way — and she’s feeling “very optimistic” this time around, after seeing Trump’s loss coming in 2020.

When President Joe Biden won that contest, Democrats in Canada had a virtual watch party due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

This year, a ticketed party for Harris supporters in Toronto is sold out, said Colleen Mahaffie, who is expecting to attend alongside about 150 others. 

She said she is excited that she can spend the evening with a larger group this time around. The event is taking place at the west-end Lithuanian House community centre, and organizers are referring others to the Trinity Common bar and restaurant. 

Like Shelton, Mahaffie is a member of the local Democrats Abroad chapter. And as in Windsor, their overarching goal leading up to the election was to encourage Americans living in Canada’s most populous city to vote. 

“We’ve been focusing a lot of our efforts on raising awareness of the fact that Americans abroad can vote wherever they live all across the globe, and also helping voters make sure that they get their ballots in time,” she said. 

Campaigning for Harris is a “somewhat secondary” goal, she said — though it’s clear who she’s rooting for in the election. 

The interim chair of the Quebec chapter of Democrats Abroad said the group has received an “overwhelming” number of RSVPs to its three election watch parties in the Montreal area, including a main event at an Irish pub that is already at maximum capacity. 

Andrew Holman said the race will be watched closely by many voting-eligible Americans in Canada, and he believes it could be a nail-biter.

“There’s a lot on the line, and anybody that says they can predict it doesn’t really know what they’re talking about,” he said Friday.

Elsewhere in downtown Montreal, the management at McLean’s Pub will be showing a mixture of U.S. election coverage as well as the more usual NHL programming, featuring the Canadiens taking on the Calgary Flames. 

The owners have solved the dilemma of what to screen by featuring mostly hockey at their original location, while the recently opened McLean’s Public House will have politics on the agenda, including some U.S. election-themed pub trivia.

In Ottawa, the Metropolitain Brasserie — a favourite among the capital city’s politicos and lobbyists — is hosting a party alongside POLITICO, Earnscliffe Strategies and the United States Embassy. 

In Halifax, a local pub run by the student union at Saint Mary’s University is hosting a watch event as the election results roll in.

Much as Shelton has been trying to take a nonpartisan approach to his Windsor door-knocking campaign, on Tuesday night, he’s planning to put on a Harris-Walz T-shirt. 

He says he’ll have his eyes glued to the television screens at the Bourbon Tap and Grill on Ottawa Street, alongside 70 or 80 others.

“We will not have the final results on election night, that’s absolutely sure,” he said.

But they’ll be there, across the river from Detroit, “celebrating a long and hard-fought campaign.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 3, 2024

With files from Morgan Lowrie in Montreal and Cassidy McMackon in Halifax