Wow, election day is finally here! I may or may not be wearing my Abraham Lincoln t-shirt as I type this. It feels like this has been a long campaign (although they all do), but especially because I voted via absentee ballot almost two months ago!
When it came time to figure out how to vote as an ex-pat, I was initially dubious. I know governments like bureaucracy and bureaucracy means forms and I'd have to figure out both federal as well as state forms. But then I posed the question to some fellow Fulbrighters and got this magical link:
This site makes it so easy that even a monkey (or a donkey or an elephant, etc.) could figure out how to register to vote abroad. It basically fills out the federal and appropriate state form for you and then sends them to your email address. You then either fax or mail them in to your voter registration office with your international address and preferred method of voting. The process of actually voting was even easier for me since I am registered in Virginia and they allow ballots to be emailed. I was able to fill it out in the comfort of my own home, get a witness to sign it, and then mail it in to the county voting office. Signed, sealed, voted!
I turned on the TV an hour ago to watch some preliminary coverage on BBC World News and the video on the screen was of a polling place in my hometown of Arlington, VA. It definitely made me a little homesick, although I wish I could be in Chicago today more than Virginia! I know I will be too jazzed to sleep so I am hoping to watch the election results with some friends tonight (late night since we are 8 hours ahead of EST).
I'm nervous in general, but even more so because I am living abroad in a contentious region and already get a lot of political questions as an American (this is a favorite topic among cabdrivers). Being abroad, I'm constantly aware of just how much the US impacts the rest of the world and how nervous the rest of the world is for the election as well. As one Egyptian said at the end of this great article (Thanks, Court): "The U.S. is the world leader, what happens in D.C. affects everyone, it doesn't matter if we like it or we don't like it."
In an interesting counter, however, JOTimes published an article describing the overwhelming apathy of Jordanians about the US election since foreign policy will (in their eyes) be the same (read: favor Israel).
When it came time to figure out how to vote as an ex-pat, I was initially dubious. I know governments like bureaucracy and bureaucracy means forms and I'd have to figure out both federal as well as state forms. But then I posed the question to some fellow Fulbrighters and got this magical link:
This site makes it so easy that even a monkey (or a donkey or an elephant, etc.) could figure out how to register to vote abroad. It basically fills out the federal and appropriate state form for you and then sends them to your email address. You then either fax or mail them in to your voter registration office with your international address and preferred method of voting. The process of actually voting was even easier for me since I am registered in Virginia and they allow ballots to be emailed. I was able to fill it out in the comfort of my own home, get a witness to sign it, and then mail it in to the county voting office. Signed, sealed, voted!
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| We even got a security style email alert from the embassy reminding us about voting procedures |
I turned on the TV an hour ago to watch some preliminary coverage on BBC World News and the video on the screen was of a polling place in my hometown of Arlington, VA. It definitely made me a little homesick, although I wish I could be in Chicago today more than Virginia! I know I will be too jazzed to sleep so I am hoping to watch the election results with some friends tonight (late night since we are 8 hours ahead of EST).
I'm nervous in general, but even more so because I am living abroad in a contentious region and already get a lot of political questions as an American (this is a favorite topic among cabdrivers). Being abroad, I'm constantly aware of just how much the US impacts the rest of the world and how nervous the rest of the world is for the election as well. As one Egyptian said at the end of this great article (Thanks, Court): "The U.S. is the world leader, what happens in D.C. affects everyone, it doesn't matter if we like it or we don't like it."
In an interesting counter, however, JOTimes published an article describing the overwhelming apathy of Jordanians about the US election since foreign policy will (in their eyes) be the same (read: favor Israel).
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