An article by Laureen Scharps (AIWC Frankfurt)
Organizing a voter registration event as part of your club activities makes sense, especially if you live in a city with a consulate or embassy, whose staff are often eager to help. For example, AIWC Frankfurt invited Sevak Tsaturyan, Vice-Consul, US Consulate-General Frankfurt, to speak about voter registration at their monthly all-club coffee in May. He urged US members to “register now”. During his presentation he also pointed out that paper registration forms are being “phased out” and encouraged voters to go online to register. To illustrate the importance of voting from abroad, Tsaturyan spoke about the special election in the 8th Congressional District of Pennsylvania last March. Overseas absentee ballots broke a tie between two candidates and decided the election.
Remember, your vote makes a difference! So don’t forget to cast your ballot for the midterms, well before November 6, 2018! If you have trouble with the registration process, with your local election official or with receiving or voting a ballot, contact FAWCO ().
How to register
You can use one of the following links to register/request a ballot:
The process is simple. You go to the website of your choice; choose your state; list your city and county; fill in the required information about your identity and US and overseas addresses; and send the resulting form to the office of your local election official (LEO). If you are not sure which US address to enter on the form, give either:
- the address from which you last voted; or
- if you never voted in the US, the last address at which you lived; or
- if you have never lived in the US as an adult, the address of your citizen parent.
(It’s a good idea to check with the LEO, a few weeks after you send the form, to be sure that you are safely registered, although some proactive LEOs will contact you instead.) The LEO will then mail a ballot to you about 45 days before the election. To maximize your chance of receiving a ballot and returning it within the deadline for your state, register now.
How to vote
Your ballot should reach you well before the election, but ballots fail to reach over 20% of registered overseas voters in every election year. If your ballot has not come by October 6, 2018, return to the site where you registered, fill out a Federal Write-in Absentee Ballot and send it to your LEO. Use the same link as before:
If your regular ballot turns up afterwards, vote and return that one, too, and let the LEO decide which one to count.
How to run a FAWCO club voter-registration campaign
Even if your club does not have a consulate or embassy nearby, you can still organize a voter registration as part of your club activities, such as luncheons, sports activities, etc. Just bring along cards printed with the above links and hand them out – or bring a laptop and help members register on the spot. Give the information and links above on your club’s website or Facebook wall. You can also work with other citizen groups, and seek US voters at churches, schools and workplaces.
US law-makers have no reason to listen to overseas citizens’ concerns if we do not help to determine whether they get or keep their jobs. And they need to hear our views – as daily, if unofficial, US ambassadors – whether they know it or not. Both to ensure your concerns are heard and to serve your country, vote in 2018 (and every other year there’s an election)!