Voting from Abroad
To American expats who haven’t yet registered to vote from abroad, Susan Dziedusyzcka-Suinat, head of the nonpartisan Overseas Vote Foundation, says this: “No excuses. The fact that we are not participants in our own democracy is horrific to our host countries. We need to set an example if our country is trying to set up democracies elsewhere. Voting from abroad is the best example we can show.” There are 7,838 voting jurisdictions in the US, and each of those has its own set of procedures. At its website, the foundation helps the world’s six million American voters living abroad navigate the process of casting their ballots. An online RAVA tool guides users through easy and accurate registration, while top-level security measures keep all information secure. The site also features an election official directory and a 24-hour “help desk,” there to keep unanswered questions from becoming a reason not to vote. “We have tremendous power here,” Dziedusyzcka-Suinat reminds American expats. Our vote is sometimes a definitive vote. If we can really get massive participation from the overseas community, it won’t just draw us together, but will make us so much more important in the eyes of our elected officials.”
