Election Day for the Bulgarians in America is nearing its end because of the time difference. The biggest Bulgarian community overseas is in Chicago. A total of 5 polling stations were opened in the city and the environs.

Are our compatriots in the Windy City going to vote, and if yes what prompted them to exercise their civil right - BNRs correspondent in Chicago Elena Tsaneva asked 4 of the almost 200,000 Bulgarians living in the city.

Krassya Blyangova has been living in America for 21 years, and has never voted but she says that this year she is definitely going to exercise her right to vote:

“Because of my mother, because of my brother and the relatives I have living there. Yes, I know everything is so political, I know it is not easy to govern a country. It is time for more young people to be involved in the country’s administration so that we can start getting somewhere. We are all very interested in what is going on in Bulgaria because in all of these years we have been supporting our relatives and we cannot be indifferent to what is happening in our country.”

Tsvetelin Tsonev is the youngest respondent with the shortest experience as an expat. He admits he is not very interested in the elections in Bulgaria. Another one of our compatriots – Nikolay Blyangov states that he has not voted since he came to America, but that this time he will:

“As confirmation that we are not indifferent to the situation in Bulgaria I shall not only vote, I am a member of the election commission and I shall be able to compare my experience as a member of the election commissions in Bulgaria years ago, and now, in America, 20 years later,” he says.

Stella Tahrilova is a construction engineer by education, in Chicago she is a real estate broker. Stella says she is definitely going to vote:

“It has been so many years since I came to America! My soul aches and I very much want to return to Bulgaria! I ache for the goodhearted people, so welcoming, who lived there when I was there. I ache for the professionals who still live in our country, for the young people. We are abroad to build other countries, and the pain and the love we feel of our own country is eating us up inside. That is why I am going to vote, and I am going to take my mother to vote too, who is in a wheelchair,” Stella Tahrilova says.

Vox pop: Elena Tsaneva, Chicago

Editing by Elena Karkalanova