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Americans overseas galvanize for U.S. elections

  • Story Highlights
  • Some 4 million to 5 million American civilians live outside United States
  • Hundreds of thousands of U.S. military personnel also stationed overseas
  • Americans overseas must send ballots to their home states
  • Overseas ballots played a role in the contested 2000 presidential election
  • Next Article in Politics »
By Miranda Leitsinger
CNN
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HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- Steve Wible, a missionary who has lived in Hong Kong for 20 years, said he has not voted in the past four or five U.S. presidential elections. But this year is different.

A woman prepares her ballot at the U.S. consulate in Hong Kong on October 15.

"I am far more energized for this election," Wible, a Pennsylvania voter, said after completing his ballot at the U.S. consulate in the southern Chinese city. "I looked at my wife as we were watching TV and seeing the debates and saying, 'we need to have our voice heard this time.'"

An unknown number of the estimated 4 million to 5 million American civilians living outside the United States, as well as hundreds of thousands of military personnel, have cast absentee votes sent to them by their home state, while others have had to submit a federal emergency write-in ballot.

It is difficult to know the exact number of Americans voting from overseas, since they can complete the process with their state and without having to deal with their local U.S. consulate or embassy.

But the U.S. State Department reported more hits to its federal voting assistance Web site than in 2004, and noted that many Americans were turning up at voting events -- from registration drives to town hall meetings to handing in ballots -- hosted by their offices around the world: more than 300 in Jakarta, Indonesia, 250 in Doha, Qatar and in Lusaka, Zambia, more than 900 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and 110 in Accra, Ghana.

Fact Box

  • States leading registration on Overseas Vote Foundation Web site: Texas, California, New York, Minnesota, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania
  • Countries where these overseas voters are residing: UK, Canada, Germany, Israel, France, Australia, Japan, Switzerland, Italy, China
    Source: Overseas Vote Foundation
  • "We're seeing a lot more turnout and a lot more interest and that's driven a lot of our efforts to meet the needs of the American voters overseas," said a State Department spokeswoman.

    "What we're seeing is a lot of interest among young voters coming out to register for the first time who really just need help with the process," she said, adding they were also "seeing a lot of voters come out who haven't voted in as many as 40, 50 years who need to re-register."

    In Hong Kong, 650 Americans, from states such as Utah, Florida and California, recently flooded the consulate to complete federal write-in absentee ballots. Video Watch analysis of U.S. voters registering overseas »

    "It's been a very exciting summer of politics in Hong Kong. It's very much a part of our news. It's in the South China Morning Post every day ... and I think people in Hong Kong, American citizens, if not Hong Kongers themselves, I think everyone is very energized with this election," said Sandra Collins-de Lange of the local League of Women Voters.

    "I think maybe because I am so far away from home that this is one of the threads that keeps me attached to the United States ... I always feel American but I feel very American every four years," the Florida voter said. Video Watch Collins-de Lange describe energized registration efforts for Americans in Hong Kong »

    Under the typical overseas voting process, Americans have to request absentee ballots from election officials in their home state, fill them out and send them back in. But some voters have reported difficulties.

    "They don't make it easy," Wendy Murdock, a 34-year-old Californian who lives with her husband in the United Arab Emirates, told CNN by telephone.

    The couple applied for absentee ballots, but never received them.

    "So we had to download from a link from the Democrats Abroad Web site just to do the write-in ballot and then we had to FedEx them ... to register our vote. We still don't know if they ever really count the vote or what the deal is," she said.

    In cases such as Murdock's, voters can go to www.fvap.gov, where they can print out an emergency federal write-in absentee ballot, the State Department said.

    The Overseas Vote Foundation, a non-profit and non-partisan voter assistance group, has set up a Web site to help American expatriates. The group provides ballots, addresses for local election offices and a help desk, among other services. Video Watch U.S. voter registration efforts from Europe to South America »

    Susan Dzieduszycka-Suinat, a Californian living in Munich, Germany, launched the foundation in 2004. This year, the group has helped register tens of thousands of Americans in 220 countries, with 26 percent of them first-time voters, 36 percent under the age of 30 and 70 percent casting a ballot for the first time from overseas. Video Americans in Argentina excited by the presidential election »

    "You can see the progression since the year 2000, when I think kind of the American electorate, and especially the overseas electorate, became aware of the fact that these votes coming in from ... outside of the country ... could actually make a difference," she told CNN by telephone.

    "It really piqued people's awareness at that point and, since then, I can say it's only been a growing interest."

    Dzieduszycka-Suinat, 47, said she decided to wade into overseas voting after her experience as an expatriate voter in Germany in 2004, when she received "a nearly 500-page instruction book and a form that made my eyes blur."

    "There are some really fundamental issues, problems in the overseas voting program. ... There is one federal program that covers all states and territories but it becomes very complicated because it's actually implemented by the states.

    "So there is one set of regulations. However, each state can modify or add to those regulations for how to register to vote," she added.

    The foundation partnered this year with FedEx to offer discount shipping of ballots from 89 countries. That program ended October 29.

    "It's important that the voices of Americans overseas get back into the mix, into the vote count," she said.

    The enthusiasm of overseas voters this year can also be seen in the slew of events organized around the race.

    Texan Christopher Exline posted a McCain-Palin sign in the window of his furniture rental store on a busy Hong Kong street.

    "This election is probably the most important election for a couple of generations, not only for the people of the United States but for all the people here in Hong Kong, so we felt that it was important to just kind of see what type of interest there would be from the people on the street," said Exline, treasurer of the local Republicans Abroad group.

    The sign has generated "considerable interest," including from a Chinese woman who put a curse on the store because of it, Exline said.

    "We've had a lot of people come in. Some are for McCain and Palin and others aren't, so it's actually sparked a wide degree of discourse and conversation on the election."

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    Terah Hussein Edun, a voter from the state of Georgia, said she watched the debates at a university in Morocco where she is currently studying.

    "We all got together ... Moroccans and Americans, and Democrats and Republicans, and we were all cheering our candidate on and discussing," the first-time voter told CNN by telephone. "It was really exciting ... It was important to all of us."

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