By Abbas Poptani

British interest in this election has been unprecedented in both its intensity and innovation. Barack Obama campaigners canvassed expats at London’s famed Caribbean street party, the Notting Hill Carnival, in late August, while budding politicos from the Labour and Conservative parties flew into North Carolina and Ohio respectively for last-minute battleground efforts.

The fervor came to a head Tuesday as mock elections were held at universities, colleges and bars across the land. From the winding streams and dreamy church spires of Oxford to thriving nightspots in London’s touristy Leicester Square and the trend-setting East End, academics and young partygoers alike joined in the action. The Oxford Union, founded in 1823 as the independent debating chamber for Oxford University students, hosted a cheerfully boisterous election night more Hogarth than high-tech. Historic libraries were turned into makeshift taverns for the night as students held lively mock debates in character as presidential candidates. Students were so convinced of a devastating landslide in Obama’s favor that the practice of vote-counting for their mock election was deemed an unnecessary inconvenience.

At the University of Edinburgh, Obama won 85 percent share of the Edinburgh vote. John McCain finished third with 3 percent behind the surging Green Party’s 12 percent (never mind that the Greens aren’t a real player in national American politics). Betsy Super, former John Kerry activist and organizer of the “You Decide!” event, suggested that the exceptional level of British interest in the election stemmed from “a distaste for the Bush era” and the “yearning for change” amongst Britons.