Writing in the New York Times Magazine on October 11, The Ethicist considered a question about voting from overseas from Kim, who has moved permanently to Sweden and asked, “I’m an American living abroad. Should I vote in US elections?” The answer is YES.
Millions of (non-military) Americans live outside the USA. We are good citizens of both the land of our birth and the lands of our adoption. US citizenship confers rights; rights entail responsibilities, such as filing a US tax return and exercising the right and duty to vote. All overseas Americans should vote to benefit ourselves and our first and current homelands.
The Ethicist is right to say that US voting isn’t mandatory (nobody is trying to make it so), but wrong to say that it gives no benefits to the expat voter. Voting benefits overseas Americans in several ways:
- promoting our and our children’s interests in a government that affects our lives
- serving our country/countries
- exercising and protecting our rights
- helping to preserve democracy in the USA.
Register to vote, starting January 1, 2024, on a safe, secure, nonpartisan site, such as the US Vote Foundation or the Federal Voting assistance Program (FVAP).
Promoting our own interests
First, expat groups lobbying the US Congress during Overseas Americans Week routinely report that Congress’ interest in issues that affect overseas voters is directly related to those voters’ ability to determine whether members keep their jobs. Overseas Americans often complain that US law ignores or unintentionally harms us. For example, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) requires burdensome and expensive reporting from people who probably owe no money to Uncle Sam (because they pay more taxes abroad). Overseas Americans can prod their representatives to repair such damage and promote their own interests, but only if they vote.
While voter turnout in the USA is much worse than that in many developed countries (around 65% seems to be cause for celebration), turnout for overseas Americans voters was estimated to be only 4% in 2013. If we do not bother to speak, why should lawmakers listen to our concerns?
Second, the USA has a long reach in the world; doesn’t Kim want to help ensure that that reach benefits them and their family, even in Sweden? If Kim’s children are Americans, as well as Swedes, Kim’s voting can help build their future.
Serving our country/countries
In addition, while the Ethicist calls voting “an expressive act” in which the voter chooses a team to support, many overseas Americans see it as a welcome way to serve the country of our birth by helping to shape its future, in the same way as we try to serve our adopted countries. We think that living abroad gives us unique insights on issues that add value to the US political discussion, and that a healthy US foreign policy benefits the countries where we live. The USA needs to hear our voices – not just in the choice of President and Vice-President, and senators and representatives in Congress, but in state and local offices (in states that permit us to vote on them). And, now that many political races are decided by small margins, we have a better chance to be heard than ever before.
The Internet has solved our old problem of getting information on issues and candidates, as well as creating the new one of finding accurate information. It also provides a number of safe, nonpartisan sites (such as the US Vote Foundation and the Federal Voting Assistance Program – FVAP) where overseas voters can get information and fill out the form needed to register to vote and request a ballot from their own homes. (Federal law says we must register every year when an election is held, so visit one of these sites every January 1.)
Exercising and protecting our rights
Further, overseas Americans’ right to vote is a hard – and recently – won right. As the late Barbara Jordan famously observed, when the US Constitution was ratified, its “We the people” did not include her. The US did not start out with universal suffrage. White men who did not own property, African Americans, women, Native Americans, Asian Americans and overseas Americans all had to struggle to be included well into the 20th century. Some paid for their efforts with their lives, and the struggle for voting rights continues. After considerable lobbying, the Overseas Citizens Voting Rights Act added overseas Americans to “we the voters” in 1976.
We’ve had the right to vote for fewer than 50 years and new anti-voting laws threaten it. Both factors make that right more precious.
Helping to preserve democracy in the USA
Finally, the continuing crisis of democracy in the USA means that all Americans, everywhere, are needed to do what they can to preserve the American democratic system. Barbara Jordan gave us a good motto for this struggle:
My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total, and I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution.”
Voting is a choice, but I and many of my friends, like Kim’s friends, see it as an opportunity as well as a duty. We think all Americans living outside the USA, temporarily or permanently, should embrace the opportunity to vote in all US elections for which they are eligible, to benefit ourselves and both the countries that we love.
Register to vote, starting January 1, 2024, on a safe, secure, nonpartisan site, such as the US Vote Foundation or the Federal Voting assistance Program (FVAP).