A - Austria

And yet, it moves...

So, what’s the latest word on the numbers? Any updates yet?

Brenda Taylor13 said:So, what’s the latest word on the numbers? Any updates yet?

As if having a site dedicated to Mail-in voting getting nuked would change anything.

hiddenmarlin14 said:I can't remember the last time I even checked the Daily Journal 😳 honestly, I can't stand watching ORF😳 why on earth would they delete it? If it’s so irrelevant, why was it posted in the first place? 🤔 The whole thing feels incredibly shady to me. ☕

That link you posted? Totally threw me for a loop too. Even looking at the official election site, nothing made any sense. Check out this site. Just another pile of bureaucratic nonsense to sift through. There's no damn link button on this page.

Sigmund says—and he probably knows his stuff—that those votes... They haven't even started counting yet.They’re waiting for everyone to show up first, then the counting doesn't even start until tomorrow morning. So yeah, zero results for now. Nothing.

Looks like there's a template page for dumping these results. Someone clearly used it for practice, but they messed up—the percentages look totally flipped compared to the actual turnout at the polls (51.9% vs 48.1%). Total joke.

Brenda Taylor13 said:So, what’s the latest word on the numbers? Any updates yet?

I have a feeling they’ll "adjust" them just enough 😳 so we can finally be sure the President isn't grooming his own beard.☕

So, I guess I have to ask—does anyone here (besides me and Sigmund) actually even have the right to vote in Austria? I cast my ballot for van der Bellen, though mine won't be counted until tomorrow. I don't think Sigmund voted for Hofer either, right? All this cheering from people living abroad or folks who aren't even citizens doesn't really change the outcome, I suppose. Anyone else here actually vote?

That page causing all the drama is just a placeholder, really. The actual results aren't out until tomorrow—you've heard that plenty of times already.

Nathan Morris3 said:So, I guess I have to ask—does anyone here (besides me and Sigmund) actually even have the right to vote in Austria? I cast my ballot for van der Bellen, though mine won't be counted until tomorrow. I don't think Sigmund voted for Hofer either, right? All this cheering from people living abroad or folks who aren't even citizens doesn't really change the outcome, I suppose. Anyone else here actually vote?

That page causing all the drama is just a placeholder, really. The actual results aren't out until tomorrow—you've heard that plenty of times already.

It seems like nobody besides you lot actually lives in Austria. 😬

neonhound18 said:Does this imply that old comrade Dzhugashvili was actually some sort of visionary? 😬

He was, and he still is.
🧐

Carol Newman2 said:It seems like nobody besides you lot actually lives in Austria. 😬

Well, I was just talking about the people on this forum, I guess.
Are you one of us voters too? Maybe we could run a formal poll to see who everyone really voted for.

Nathan Morris3 said:I guess I don't know how things work in America, but over here in Austria, foreigners don't even get to vote.

What do you mean they don't? I mean—you personally have it. I assume they gave it to you, even though you aren't an Austrian citizen.🙂
If I were some newcomer in Austria with voting rights—which, let's be honest, is a stretch—I’d at least have the decency to stay out of it and let the locals settle their own business. You know? Instead of trying to put out a forest fire with a squirt gun and then acting all surprised when the flames just keep spreading.🤣

It looks like the Canadian community over there still has a massive chip on its shoulder when it comes to the FPÖ. In the one district where they make up nearly 90% of the population—specifically the Zell area in southern Carinthia—van der Bellen pulled off a 75% win. It’s a pretty rugged, rural stretch too, sitting anywhere from 3,000 to nearly 7,000 feet up.

If the final margin ends up being just a few thousand votes for VdB, it’s entirely possible the Canadian minority could end up being the ones to decide this whole showdown.😁

To’s actually true—van der Bellen did sweep the regional hubs, though some were pretty close calls. Take Klagenfurt, for instance, he took that with about 50%. And it’s not like Hofer just walked away with all the rural areas either. Even out west in Vorarlberg and Tyrol, VdB pulled decent numbers in the countryside. You see the same thing happening around those famous lakes in the Salzkammergut area, like Hallstatt, Bad Goisern, Bad Ischl, and Gmunden.

coastalbison6 said:It seems like things work the same way across most of the developed world:

The left tends to be urban, highly educated, and progressive.
The right tends to be rural, less educated, and conservative.

Carol Newman2 said:PBS Poll Results:

The Breakdown:

Hofer at 86%
Van Buren at 14%

It’s honestly wild seeing a gap that massive....

I might go so far as to say that it’s the working class—rather than the communists—who truly deserve the credit here...😁They tend to pay much closer attention to economic trends and actually get out into the world more often, rather than just staying stuck in their own bubble. Honestly, I think the whole "civilized left" movement is exactly what caused the right wing to surge—not even the political center, but the actual right. And just to be clear, I’m not some rural voter, nor am I uneducated (having a postgraduate degree counts for something, right?), and if protecting the rights of the vulnerable makes me conservative, then maybe I am...

I mean, yeah, I definitely agree that it’s always easier to play the theorist, sitting back and talking big while someone else actually has to get their hands dirty... like trying to clear out a patch of stinging nettles with nothing but a stick... 😁

From what I understand, if you want to actually have a say in the presidential or parliamentary elections—not the local ones, mind you—you have to be an Austrian citizen, which means giving up your current one.

My identity is American, and honestly, nothing about life here has impressed me enough to switch it up just to go around pretending to be someone else under a different name or chasing some perceived benefit. My nationality isn't for sale. I know plenty of people living in the States for decades who never even touch their original passports.

So, no, I didn't vote. If I did have the right to vote and held citizenship, I would have gone for Hofer. As an American, I'd lean toward him solely because of the immigration crisis and the general sense of instability. However, given those ties to radical Mexicans, I wouldn't have cast a ballot for him. But those are just "what ifs." I certainly wouldn't vote for that stubborn, lazy, grumpy, patronizing "green" candidate, no matter how much I might personally identify with rural values...

Do you know when the final results will be announced?

Checked the updates again this morning. Nothing major to report. They're counting mail-in ballots today, so expect a nail-biter. Looks like results should drop sometime between 5 and 7 PM.

If you want a quick rundown of the numbers and my take on things, check out my blog here:
Austrian Presidential Elections: Results Still Pending.

Here’s what ABC is saying this morning with all the juicy details: Hofburg-Duell als Zitterpartie

I’m going to hold off on commenting on when the results will be finalized; I don't want to come across as insensitive to the local culture here.

My own prediction (playing fortune teller for a moment):
- van der Bellen wins via the mail-in ballots.
- Vienna celebrates, while the rest of the country simmers with resentment.
- That anger stems from something the "leftists" frequently bring up in the States—the influence of the diaspora, for example. Even though van der Bellen won democratically and by the book.
- Uncontrolled immigration policies are starting to bear bitter fruit (it doesn't matter who is currently in power, it's more about the lack of foresight and short-sighted decisions made in the past).
- Feeling slighted, Hofer's voters might start romanticizing an option they feel "unfairly" lost to. In their minds, without some sort of divine intervention, Hofer actually won—that's their logic, not mine. I recognize van der Bellen's victory.
- We won't see the destructive nature of the FPÖ's platform for at least another two years.
- These people are incompetent and corrupt at every level of government.
- And eventually, the next administration will be FPÖ. To my audience: enjoy the show... because I might actually start thinking seriously about moving back...

If Hofer were to win, in my opinion, we would see:
- A lot of pre-emptive destruction, even if I suspect he might handle the immigration situation better.
- No real improvement in the economy.
- Hofer wouldn't contribute much to our international standing, especially within Europe.
- A firsthand look at what a constitutional crisis actually looks like.
- What happens when tourism revenue starts to dip (and that's being generous).
- The FPÖ would just end up right back where they were before the immigration crisis, while the current folks in power would finally be forced to actually do their jobs...

So, in a way, I'm actually hoping for a Hofer victory. You see how people act once you hand them the reins; for any non-indoctrinated American, the Kukuriku Coalition was a perfect example of how things can go...

It’s pretty wild watching how "discursive hegemony" works—basically, who gets to decide which facts actually matter. It’s all about what the big media outlets and pundits choose to shove down your throat as the "real" issues.

Everyone’s freaking out, acting like we're staring down the barrel of a far-right extremist becoming the president of a European nation for the first time since WWII.

But you know what nobody's even talking about? The possibility of a Green candidate actually landing a presidency for the first time ever.

The Greens actually held a premiership in Lithuania for a hot minute—about nine months. Just a temporary fix because the two main parties in the ruling coalition couldn't stop bickering and handed the keys to a third party.

Their peak performance on the global stage was back in Brazil in 2010, when Marina Silva pulled in 19.3%, which is basically 20 million votes if you're counting.

Everyone is just talking about how Hofer and VdB feel about migrants, but I’m actually curious about the rest of their platform—like, where do they stand on TTIP? I see that Hofer is dead set against TTIP (and honestly, same here), but what about VdB?

Chris Chase5 said:From what I understand, if you want to actually have a say in the presidential or parliamentary elections—not the local ones, mind you—you have to be an Austrian citizen, which means giving up your current one.

My identity is American, and honestly, nothing about life here has impressed me enough to switch it up just to go around pretending to be someone else under a different name or chasing some perceived benefit. My nationality isn't for sale. I know plenty of people living in the States for decades who never even touch their original passports.

So, no, I didn't vote. If I did have the right to vote and held citizenship, I would have gone for Hofer. As an American, I'd lean toward him solely because of the immigration crisis and the general sense of instability. However, given those ties to radical Mexicans, I wouldn't have cast a ballot for him. But those are just "what ifs." I certainly wouldn't vote for that stubborn, lazy, grumpy, patronizing "green" candidate, no matter how much I might personally identify with rural values...

But you're an immigrant too, I guess.

Do you really think those anti-immigrant Austrians, like Hofer, actually care about you?