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Peter Dunphy

Peter Dunphy

Photo: Lidia Hernández Tapia (OnCuba, Stock photo 2015)

The early days of the US election in Cuba

As global attention turns to voting booths throughout the U.S. this Tuesday, over 30 million Americans actually will have already casted their ballots. A large percentage of these early votes are U.S. citizens abroad and in fact, a growing percentage of them reside in Cuba, a country whose future will inevitably be impacted by the results announced late on Tuesday night. Most voting American citizens in Cuba have done so by way of the “Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot,” administered by the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP). Voters can access these ballots either on the FVAP website or in-person at the US Embassy. The US Embassy in Havana was unable to report exactly how many US citizens residing in Cuba voted in this election. This year, for the first time, the Cuban government—at the request of the U.S. government–took out ad space in its state-run newspaper (Granma) and television stations to provide information to U.S. citizens in Cuba on the process of voting and deadlines, according to the U.S. Embassy in Havana. The next President of the United States will play a crucial part in deciding whether or not to build upon the progress with respect to normalizing relations with Cuba...