HK-American: Ask me anything

Harris is

I voted by mail for the 2020 general election. This is because my voting address is my university apartment address but my parents wanted me to stay at home with them because of covid. In CA they verify the signature on the ballot and make sure it matches the driver licence one.
Usually I vote in person because I like to wait until the day of to decide and I don't want to have to worry about it getting lost in the mail.
I got a text letting me know my ballot was being counted and I can check the CA voter website.

I think the mail in ballot process is safe and secure because of the signature verification process and the fact that you have to give them your CA ID and Social Security number to register (and the names have to match up with both documents). The vote counting is fair. I think the electoral college is just bad- the popular vote would just be more democratic and fair.

In the US you have to be 21 to go to a bar and I didn't become 21 until covid so I cannot say.
Americans are not looking for sex all the time, I can assure you of that.

I don't like Harris. In fact, many people on the left do not like her because of her record as CA Attorney General think Secretary of Justice for CA. It is mixed at best.
See this for more context https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/1/23/18184192/kamala-harris-president-campaign-criminal-justice-record

Well we do have a lot rednecks

yah the daily dump and meaningless post are the best
the creativity of ppl in here is out of chart

That's up for you to decide. I don't trust the US to help HK (regardless of Trump or Biden) and US History has shown that the US intervention in countries can make things a lot worse. I think the West is pushing back on China because it sees China as a threat to Western power. The CCP is equally as bad as the West and HK in my opinion is stuck in the middle of it all. CCP wants to exert more direct rule in HK to solidify its strength, the West wants to preserve HK's capitalist system because of how it supports the capitalist system.

It will be to HK's benefit that that the CCP becomes more democratic as they would be more likely to live up to the promise of universal suffrage promised in the Basic Law. If we support democracy in HK it is only natural we want it in the Mainland (and Macau) as well.

Yes the US does and the part of CA I live in is not representative of the US as a whole.

That will be my incentive to learn Cantonese.

Cantonese is very different than English
Maybe just my lack of understanding in eng
In my understanding,
eng is a very straightforward language
Chinese and Cantonese are lots more emoticon drafted and have huge variety of vocab to describe
That’s why I prefer Cantonese
It’s beautiful

English compared to other European languages like Spanish is way more complex. Spanish is mostly based on Latin while English is Germanic but has a significant amount of Latin and Greek roots.
Cantonese is actually the first language I learned and I didn't speak much English until I left HK. My hope has always been that if I try to re-learn Cantonese, I can quickly pick up the words I used to know. Albeit that would be only a 3 year old level of Cantonese.

From this comment
I could clearly tell u are an American or at least stayed there for a long time, cos u care about healthcare
Not like the ppl the main forum rooting for Trump for everything

Sorry I might seem a bit hostile, cos this is actually the first time I am reading at the world section
I don't know would ppl would fake their identify here...

And that also make sense, u also lived in a left state, so healthcare is like Christmas wishlist, and Trump incompetent is like the virus we must get rid off (not so sure about whether the left state would think of that

I am so glad to u are commenting in this forum, and I agree most of ur ideas, because I am also in Cali
However, I am very sure that ur opinion is not with the majority here, or even the majority of Hkers in US.

Just be careful what u would read on the main forum, or ask actually opinions from HKers

I am well aware that US ppl don't like outside ppl mingle with their politics, so don't get angry when seeing Trump stuff around here

On the other way, I have once joined an Animal Crossing Discord Server, full of European and American players.
I got heated up by the US election news and started sharing news about the current alleged “election fraud”. The server is full of pro-Democrats party people and they think I am sharing fake news. I got frustrated and then I stop defending and left the server.
Yes it is difficult to stay in a forum or server that has opinions heavily opposing with yours.
I hope that you don’t feel frustrated as the way I did.

Also I want to know if there is poll watching in your county. Are there live boardcast in counting centres?

Healthcare has been a concern for me because the health costs in the US are significantly higher than any developing country. I pay about 1500HKD in medication costs alone and I have private insurance. Yes the hospital authority general and specialist outpatient clinics have way too long of wait times but the cost is not going to be the reason you can't access healthcare.

Haha that's fine. I think it is important to discuss ideas with people that think differently. While we probably grew up eating similar food and I even went to tutorials during secondary school, the society/culture around me I grew up in is very different. That inevitably will lead to different opinions.
I actually grew up much more conservative (and I used to watch only Fox News), it's actually my reflections on HK society that moved me further to the left. I grew up thinking that capitalism is good and that capitalism brings democracy but as seen in HK that is clearly not the case.

I think as long as people are respectful and willing to listen it is fine. The allegations of election fraud being claimed by Trump are just not valid and there is no proof. I welcome the Trump campaign to bring evidence in court but there hasn't been any so far. Now people being rude to you is not right. If I disagree with someone then depending on the situation I will try to politely explain why but sometimes it is better not to say anything too. I think Americans have a tendency to speak without thinking so we tend to say rather rude things.

Elections are conducted by states and counties so watching poll watching regulations vary. When ballots are being counted observers from both parties are always present. Some counties live stream their counting process. See more info herehttps://qz.com/1926439/how-to-watch-2020-election-ballots-being-counted/

why don't you love trump?

For number 2, I, and probably a lot of us here too, am curious.
Why do dems/lefts/anti-trumps always say there is no evidence?
Is it because it doesnt come up in the news? Is it because they choose to not believe in just anything Trump claims?

For the longest time HKers have been the victim of rigged elections; that any irregularity would trigger our skeptisim questioning the integrity of the election.
It is quite non-sense for us to hear "there is no evidence" when there are so much traces and loose-ends that do not make sense.
More than 90% voter turnout at swing states? Really? It doesnt sound fishy at all?

It comes down to the policies. I want the government to expand healthcare access while Trump is pushing to dismantle Obamacare (Obamacare is basically a partially subsidised version of HK's 自願醫保計劃. Except in the US we don't have a public healthcare option like the Hospital Authority so everyone needs private insurance). I think climate change is a real threat, Trump does not. I want to increase taxes on the rich, Trump in 2017 cut taxes on the wealthy and corporations. I think the US should be more inclusive in immigration policy, Trump has sought to restrict immigration.

I used to be a Republican for a long time and even in 2018 I voted for Republicans. It's actually my time in HK during 2019 that made me re-think a lot about how I viewed healthcare, education, environment, taxes, immigration, etc. I wish Trump did good policies, I want the US to succeed.

Good question. Long post but here are my thoughts.
There are some democrats voter that just believe whatever the Democrat politicians say (though there are Republican voters that do the same). I think a lot of people on the left are skeptical at whatever Trump says because he does have a reputation for stretching the truth. The mainstream media has a bias, hence I think it is good to get a variety of sources. See this link that explains why the 2020 elections are not fraudulent https://www.vox.com/2020/11/13/21563825/2020-elections-most-secure-dhs-cisa-krebs. If you want a Conservative news site see National Review https://www.nationalreview.com/. It's very conservative but more factually correct.

I'll address some concerns HKers may have about the election integrity.
1. Turnout was way higher: Trump is a polarizing figure you either love him or hate him. This drives turnout, democrat voters want to get rid of him really badly, Republican voters want to keep him in office. Generally, Democrats do better in high turnout elections, Republicans do better with low turnout elections (Republican voters are just more reliable). Mail-in ballots lead to increase turnout and due to Covid, there was an increase in the accessibility of mail-in ballots.

2. The integrity of mail in ballots: Mail-in ballots are safe and require signature verification and to register to vote one needs to present ID. Democrats vote by mail, Republicans vote in person, this is a trend that goes way beyond Trump. Day of voting ballots were counted first which is why Trump was up in WI, MI, PA, GA and later Biden passed him. I will admit on election night I thought Trump would probably win as I did not think Biden would not catch up in any state besides PA. Let's also remember in a state like AZ, Trump narrowed the gap a lot on Biden as counting continued.

3. Rural vs Urban vs Suburban: Democrats do well in Urban cities, Republicans do well in rural areas. Suburbs are shifting to Democrat but were very republican just 10 years ago. The Urban and suburban population in the US is growing, the rural ones are not. Compared to 2016, there are more voters in Democrat areas in 2020 while the Republican one has not seen much change at all.

4. Election officials are anti-Trump: GA has a Republican secretary of state (who is in charge of overseeing elections) so he wants Trump to win and Republicans to do well in GA. AZ governor is a Republican as well.

5. Republicans nationwide did well: Republicans gained seats in the House of Reps and the Democrats will have a very small majority. Republicans had to defend multiple senate seats and they had a net loss of 2 so far. The runoffs in GA should favor Republicans because runoffs have lower turnout (GA is still a Republican state so Republicans have the advantage; their candidates are also the incumbents). Trump doing worse than some Republican candidates down ticket shows that there are voters who don't like Trump but lean towards Republicans.

6. In 2016 Trump won WI, MI, PA by narrow margins: Biden did not need to do too much to flip those seats back as the margins Trump won them in 2016 were very small.

Finally, Trump can ask for recounts and go to court over allegations of voter fraud. If his campaign provides evidence I will be the first to admit I was wrong as I want a fair election.

Thanks for the patience and the long response, aint gonna quote all that to make reading difficult. In short, I think we could at least agree on all legal votes should be counted and ID verification is key to validating the votes.

But I do want to ask if you know historically who gets a 90% voter turnout (US history or across the globe)? Is it comparable to the situation now?

For the ID verification part I would say the policy's there but it was not strictly enforced. So stating there is such policy wouldnt make the case believable.


Likewise, saying the system's design is secured does not mean it was not mis-used for fraud. It is hard for us to believe that the election's integrity was NOT compromised when we see similarities to HK's voting fraud.

I guess this discussion boils down to cultural difference and the trauma HKer has been through. If you trust the system you trust the system and that's pretty much it.