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The last time Davion Atkins watched a United States election he crowded around a computer screen and ended up walking around the city "like a zombie".
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.