An Expat in Athens: Hitting the Polls in Greece

Travel Blog • Joanna Kakissis • 02.12.08 | 1:37 PM ET

There was no way I was going to miss voting in the most exciting Democratic primary in my lifetime. The Hillary Clinton-Barack Obama race is making major headlines in Greece, even knocking a tedious government sex scandal from its nightly takeover of the news.

I heard about the first-ever Global Primary a few weeks ago, and not long afterward I corresponded with Democrats Abroad volunteers here in Athens, who told me to mark Feb. 8-9 on my calendar. So on Saturday, off I went to vote.

The primary took place at the Grand Bretagne, a storied hotel that often hosts visiting diplomats and politicians. I had no trouble finding the polls: Young (teenage?) greeters in the lobby pointed voters to a conference room on the mezzanine.

The space was decorated with Greek and American flags, and had an air of festivity that I’d rarely seen in the bleak polling stations back home. A few local celebrities were there, including Brady Kiesling, who famously resigned from his U.S. diplomatic post in 2003 in protest of the Iraq war, and Yvette Jarvis, an African American woman and naturalized Greek citizen who served for many years on the Athens City Council. The photogenic Jarvis (a vocal Obama supporter) was, as usual, the main media magnet for Greek TV journalists, even as she spent much of the evening working as a poll volunteer and fielding calls on her cell phone.

Some of the Greek reporters appeared as excited about the primary as the voters themselves. “I wish I could vote in this election!” chirped one young journalist with red lips and a plunging neckline to an elderly voter in a three-piece suit.

One of the poll volunteers, Jan Sanders, said she helped register several elderly Greeks who had become naturalized U.S. citizens while working abroad. Since repatriating, they had never voted by absentee ballot—too complicated, they said—but “were elated that they could finally re-activate their American citizenship and vote for their ‘other country,’” Jan told me.

An expat Republican even appeared, all fired up about voting for John McCain. She didn’t realize that she was at a Democratic primary until she read her ballot. (She apparently missed the “Democrats Abroad” signs posted all over the area.)

“Where are the Republicans?” she said plaintively, frowning as as a perky blond volunteer gently explained that the Republicans hadn’t organized such a primary.

“Can we convince you to bat for the other team?” the volunteer asked. The woman politely declined, but returned an hour later and, indeed, cast a vote for “the other team.”

The official winner of the Athens primary won’t be made public until later this week, but unofficially I heard that Obama won by a comfortable margin. The global tally of expatriate Democrats in 33 countries will be announced on Feb. 21. From that vote, 22 delegates with 11 votes will go to the Democratic Convention in Denver in August.

Photo of Athens polling place by Jan Sanders.