This year, the 30-year-old healthcare assistant at a Dunedin rest-home will be in a Dunedin city centre bar cautiously optimistic of a result he finds more favourable.
Political group Democrats Abroad New Zealand is hosting five "election night watch parties" around New Zealand in Hamilton, Auckland, Wellington, Queenstown, and Dunedin this afternoon.
Mr Atkins, a member of the small group of ex-pat Democrats in Dunedin, said the community he grew up in, in Lynwood, Los Angeles County, California, needed a win for the Democrat nominee.
"Tomorrow, I’m hoping obviously for a Joe Biden victory," Mr Atkins said.
"And it looks like we are going to get that."
The more than 95 million Americans who had cast their votes in the 2020 presidential election by yesterday, left him optimistic there would be a high voter turnout.
He understood about 1 million Democrats Abroad had voted, himself among them.
A number of polls have forecast Mr Biden will win the election, beating US President Donald Trump today.
Mr Trump was elected in a win that surprised most pollsters four years ago.
The Otago Daily Times did attempt to solicit views from American supporters of Mr Trump in Dunedin for this story.
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Comments
I think he will be disappointed.
An American knows the score better than a non American.
I'm a Trump supporter. I wouldn't identify myself as a Trump supporter publicly here in Dunedin for fear over my safety or my job. New Zealanders are very racist and ethnocentric in their beliefs. Kiwis hate Trump. The media here has fed the people a one-sided narrative about Trump and Biden. The narrative has polarised people against Trump. Nothing will ever change that. That's fine because I've gotten to see just how racist the New Zealand people are. I no longer view New Zealand as an ally of America. I see it as a country that is actively seeking its downfall. I'm sure Trump sees that and he will continue to distance the US from NZ politically. I for one am glad to see Kiwis for what they are!
We are all entitled to our opinion and free to support who we like without fear of reprisal. You may have yours but I seriously doubt you have met all Kiwis and to declare us all racist is uncalled for, but that is your opinion and you are entitled to it. I speak only for myself here and my opinion of the current American president is not all based on the media reports. I do see the good and bad in Trump and I also see the death toll that has gone along with his reaction to the pandemic. Human life is precious so regardless of the outcome of the election today my view of him will not change. It is my opinion of him and I am entitled to it, that does not make me racist, nor does that give you the right to label all of us as such.
We're racist against White Anglo Saxon Protestants?
The Trump Train left the station. When it stops, it will have 327 electoral votes. Dementia Joe and his followers will all be sad as it pulls into the DC Metro station!
Just how hard did the ODT look??? unlike them to present unbiased reporting
Oh, that's right. Nip round to the Other Man in Another Street. This is a human interest story. Must it be balanced with human disinterest?