It’s pushing 8 p.m., Nov. 4, here in Hong Kong. It’s Election Day in the United States, but we’re not going to hear any results for another 12-13 hours. Not until Wednesday morning, here in China. Where most people seem massively disinterested in U.S. politics. Even an election for president.

Yes, we voted. Or believe we did. It was something of a chore.

First, we had to get our registration shifted to Long Beach, from Highland. Done and done, back in September.

Then we had to ask for absentee ballots. And did. But they weren’t going to be issued until after we had left for China.

So we requested that the L.A. County registrar send our ballots to the International Herald Tribune offices, where I work — since we don’t have an actual address here.

The ballots got to the office in a week or so, and the newsroom secretary handed them over to me.

I took them to wherever we were calling home, at the time (I believe it was Wan Chai, but it might have been North Point), and we filled them out. We looked at the “return by” date and wondered if they would get back in time. So we moved along fairly briskly.

I took the completed ballots back to the office and asked the newsroom secretary how much postage I needed to get them back to L.A. County, and she said $3 HK (about 40 cents) should do — so I slapped on a couple of the $3 stamps that compatriot Sam Teaford had given us as he was leaving town to go back to California.

And there we went. Assuming that was enough postage and they didn’t get lost and actually were received and counted by L.A. County. It’s not like we dropped the ballot into the box at the precinct station and we are wearing an “I voted” sticker and can get free coffee at Starbucks.

Why bother? Just habit, I suppose.

California is not a competitive state in the national election. Neither senator is up. Nothing going on with the executives in Sacramento. Even the initiatives aren’t quite as compelling as usual, aside from gay marriage.

Further, our ballots almost certainly canceled out each other. I’m guessing the only significant contest on which we agreed involved the stunningly incompetent Congressional incumbent. We both voted against her — but she almost certainly will win anyway.

So it was wasted effort, arguably. But we did it anyway. It’s about habit, and some sense of civic responsibility (I haven’t missed a state or national election since I turned 18), and wanting to feel a part of the country we (temporarily, I think) have left behind. And, yes, there is that whole “don’t complain if you didn’t bother to vote” thing, too.

The loser in tonight’s presidential election … gets to complain for the next four years. You forfeit that, far as I’m concerned, if you don’t bother to vote. Now we wait until Election Day Plus 1 to see how things turned out.