Elections in the US: the story of the bar in Paris where people vote as they have for a century and can anticipate the result

In it Harry’s Barin the center of Paris, American expatriates and tourists have already begun to “vote” in the United States presidential election, a poll that, in its 100 years of existence, has rarely gotten it wrong.

The first to insert his ballot into the wooden urn installed in the bar this year was a famous smiler: the writer Douglas Kennedy (The Pursuit of Happyness, A Special Relationship…)

This narrow bar with mahogany-paneled walls, located near the Paris Opera, It is one of the main meeting places for Americans in Paris.

Shipped in several pieces from New York, before being meticulously reconstructed in Paris, it was the refuge of literary figures such as Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald from the first half of the 20th century.

“It is an honor and I was also the first person [en votar] after Douglas Kennedy, who is better known than me. So it’s nice, I’m proud, happy,” Steven Sampson, an American literary critic, told AFPTV.

Sampson, who has lived in the French capital “for a long time”, is participating for the first time in this “straw vote” (informal consultation) open until November 4 and is already eager to know its results.

The only condition to participate is to possess a US passport. Each voter receives a ballot on which they must choose their favorite candidate: on this occasion, the Democrat Kamala Harris or the republican Donald Trump.

Participants then receive a small “I voted” sticker, as in the United States, where the presidential election will be held on November 5.

As in every election, the bar offers a cocktail specially created to represent each of the candidates. This year, the stars are “Trumpet” and “Kamala Harry’s Bar”.

Its manager, Franz-Arthur Mac Elhone, thus maintains a tradition started by his great-grandfather Harry Mac Elhone in 1924, when expatriate Americans in the City of Light wanted to participate in the election, even if only symbolically.

Then, “they couldn’t vote in Paris”, because remote voting did not exist, explains Mac Elhone. “So it was said: ‘We are going to turn this into a party (…) and we are going to create a fictitious election,'” he adds.

And the real vote has always confirmed the results of Harry’s Bar, except on three occasions: 1976, 2004 and the last in 2016, when Trump was elected against Democrat Hillary Clinton.

“It’s an interesting tradition. They haven’t always been right, but they’ve done it more times than they’ve been wrong,” says Timothy Zeller, an American tourist in Paris who hopes that, “here and in the United States,” “everyone will vote for “Kamala.”

The final result will be known on November 5 during a “big night” election, Harry’s Bar promises.