"Fewer and fewer people are voting, they're just saying that there is 'no one to vote for'. It may be an excuse, but there may indeed be some confusion in people's minds as they were betrayed several times by two substantial parties that were expected to make some changes. It is said that there are about 7,800 Bulgarians living in Vegas and less than 5% vote. This shows the futility of the series of efforts to do something - nothing comes out of these votes, only money is spent. Yes, it's emotional, a lot of people come here and spend the day as some kind of celebration. I think the other problem is that you only vote on one day. Maybe it would be nice to make it so that voting is done in one or two weeks, like the elections in the US," thinks out loud Ventsy Georgiev, but does not hide his personal hope that his elected representatives will have a higher result to make the appropriate changes. "I vote because I want us to change things in Bulgaria, however the result is always despairingly poor".

Among the Bulgarians in Las Vegas who use Election Day as a festive occasion to take a stroll to the city's famous "Bulgarian restaurant", which has housed a polling station for years, is Vladimir Chakalski. He has been in the US for a quarter of a century, but has only returned to his homeland a few times, so he does not consider it moral to vote, even though he has this civil right:

"I'm not here to vote because after living in America for so long I don't think I have the sufficient knowledge, that I am familiar with the candidates to vote for. Nor do I have the moral right to determine the fate of the people of Bulgaria. I don't have any relatives there and I only get my information from the media, social networks like Facebook, etc. - I don't think it's reliable, anyone can write whatever they want there. So if one lives in the country, one has a completely different view of things and sees differently what is going on. I hear from my friends that Bulgaria is better now than it was 25 years ago when I left. I wish everyone that life is getting better in Bulgaria. But one of the things that strikes me is that there are 10-15 parties being voted for. There is no way it can happen with so many parties! These parties should unite on some criteria and no more than 3-4 parties should fight for power in Bulgaria so that there is accountability."

"There really are too many political parties," confirms Petya Balova in a conversation with our Las Vegas contributor Maria Samichkova. Petya is a longtime expat with a successful career as an infrastructure engineer. She would like politicians from smaller parties to find ways to communicate and unite under common ideas - this would make it easier for people to vote "because people are very divided this way and the small parties naturally take votes from the big parties."