If
you have not yet requested an absentee ballot, click on The Democrats
Abroad's voter assistance website, at
http://www.votefromabroad.org/3,
to get started. That website will give you the information you need
to vote.
You can also find similar
services at the Overseas Vote
Foundation's website, at http://www.ovf-rava.org/.
There
are 50 states, each with its own voter registration and ballot laws,
and overlaying these there are certain federal laws:
-
Federal law allows
US citizens abroad to vote for federal offices only (President and VP;
US Senator; US Representative), generally in the state and at the
address where they last resided.
-
Some states (like
Michigan) will allow you to request your ballot by email. A very few
states (NOT Michigan) will allow you to send in your ballot by email as
well.
-
Some states allow
voters residing abroad to vote in state and local races as well.
(According to federal law voting for federal offices can not be used by
a state to declare you a resident for the purposes of state taxation,
but some states will hold that if you vote for sheriff or state rep or
so on, you are a resident for taxpaying purposes.)
-
There is a Federal
Write-In Ballot that you can get from the US Embassy starting on
October 4. These ballots must be counted in the states where you vote,
ONLY IF you have requested your ballot from that state. Given how slow
the mail is, if you live in a state where ballots may only be submitted
by mailing the paper, you should get your Federal Write-In Ballot if
your state ballot does not come by the first week in October.
-
In order to be
counted, a Federal Write-In Ballot must have an overseas postmark of
some sort on the envelope in which it is sent --- otherwise the
Democrats and Republicans here would be organizing couriers to collect
ballots and fly them to the USA, where they could be forwarded by a
much speedier and more reliable postal system.
-
You can send in
your ballot --- or your request for a ballot --- by a courier service.
FedEx has internationally advertised that they will be giving a
discount from their usual high prices to deliver US ballots.
-
If you are looking
for a shipping method that is more reliable than the regular Panamanian
postal service yet less expensive than UPS, FedEx or another courier
services, please look into using Servicio EMS available through Correo
Nacional. Servicio EMS costs $13 for documents and remember that the
the envelope with your ballot or ballot request that is received by
your local election office in the United States must have a Panamanian
postmark on it.
Need
anyone remind you of the unusually delicate condition in which the
United States finds itself this year?
With
a bad economy; wars that are going badly in Iraq and Afghanistan and
a military stretching beyond the limits of its human capacities;
rival religious sectarian versus ecumenical public interest views on
the direction the republic should take on issues ranging from
abortion and the teaching of science in public schools to foreign
policy matters; conflicting views on the nature or very existence of
civil liberties and human rights ranging from privacy through the
right to vote all the way to the question of torture --- probably not
since the Civil War (when freedom versus slavery and union versus
dissolution rode on the vote
results) and the election of 1800 (when Jefferson took on the
Federalists over the Alien and Sedition Acts and the nature of
fundamental freedoms) have we seen such stark choices facing the
American people.
C'mon, Americans --- whether you're a
Democrat or Republican, a libertarian or a vegetarian, a green or a
red, an anarchist or a monarchist, or even (especially) one of those
much sought-after independents --- register and vote!
