Absentee Ballots Key to 2004 Election
By BETH DUFF-BROWN, Associated Press Writer
NEW DELHI - On election night in November 2000, dozens gathered at the American Center in New Delhi to watch the returns. When Democrats and Republicans alike saw the close results coming in, some were compelled to sheepishly admit that they hadn't bothered to vote.
They had thought their absentee ballots wouldn't really count, or were too difficult to prepare, or would be lost by the Indian post or U.S. diplomatic pouch.
Americans living in India, and dozens of countries worldwide, are determined that won't happen this time around.
"People know the absentee vote potentially turned the election the last time," said Carolyn Sauvage-Mar, an American living in the Indian capital who is pushing compatriots to vote. "This race is close enough that it hinges upon who's going to get out there and vote — and so much is at stake in this election."
In 2000, George W. Bush's election victory was certified only after the overseas ballots were counted. Though Al Gore (news - web sites) won popular vote nationally, Bush won the electoral vote after being certified the winner by 537 votes in Florida.
"The reality is that the expat vote actually decided the last election," said Sumana Brahman, coordinator of Americans Abroad in India. She and Sauvage-Mar, whose husband works for the U.N. Development Program, are helping Americans through the cumbersome process of getting their absentee ballots in order.
"Too many people are disengaged from the process," said Brahman, a 43-year-old public health consultant with two children at the American Embassy School.
Americans living overseas did not have the right to vote in U.S. presidential elections until 1975, so both women see themselves as new-age suffragettes, defending their franchise.
They're reminding Americans that while they may have missed the Sept. 15 deadline to request an absentee ballot by mail, they can still get it over the Internet and fax it to a Federal Assistance Voting Program center by early October, depending on their home state.
Some 7 million Americans live abroad. Those 18 and older are entitled to have their absentee votes counted in the state where they last lived — no matter how long ago that was.
Getting ballots into the hands of Americans overseas can be a problem; federal officials say they should be mailed out 45 days ahead of the Nov. 2 election. But the key battleground states of Washington and Oregon are already late or running into problems. Washington's ballots aren't expected to go to overseas voters until the week of Oct. 10. And Oregon, which mailed 10,000 overseas ballots by Sept. 18, must send out new ones because the Supreme Court ruled Ralph Nader (news - web sites)'s name could not be included.
In Florida, the state Division of Elections said absentee ballots had been mailed to all Florida overseas voters. Florida counties had a deadline of Sept. 18, except in some counties hard hit by the string of hurricanes, but ballots have been mailed to all voters by now.
Wisconsin sent blank ballots to overseas voters in August. But a second round of regular ballots normally sent out about a month before election day have yet to be printed. The state Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments Monday on whether Nader should be included on the ballot; a lower court judge ruled that he should not.
Nevada's most populous county, Clark, started sending out absentee ballots to 3,250 overseas voters on Monday. In its second-most populous county, Washoe, some 1,000 overseas ballot requests aren't yet back from the printer, but officials hope to have them in the mail next week.
The U.S. Embassy in Cairo, Egypt, has distributed 3,000 voter registration applications this year, compared to 900 last time. In Italy, where some 169,000 Americans live, the U.S. consulate in Rome reports an overwhelming demand for registration forms. The Washington-based Democrats Abroad had 30 overseas chapters in 2000 and now has a presence in 73 countries, including an Iraq (news - web sites) chapter called "Donkeys in the Desert."
With its 492,000 overseas troops in mind, the Pentagon (news - web sites) improved its Web site for absentee voters and promised faster mail service as part of efforts to avert a repeat of the balloting problems four years ago. The Defense Department plan also included TV and radio announcements and banners in commissaries and classrooms.
But the program ran into trouble this month over complaints that anti-hacker measures were preventing legitimate voters from using a Web site that assists soldiers and other Americans living overseas. The Pentagon said it subsequently eased access to the site.
The Sept. 11 attacks and the Iraq invasion have made a huge difference in the attitude of Americans abroad about voting.
Democrats and Republicans feel they are bearing the brunt of a growing anti-Americanism not felt by those back home.
"This administration's foreign policy has been devastating to our image abroad," said Eileen Wilkinson of Democrats Abroad in Rome.
John Potter is a 60-year-old investment banker from San Francisco who has lived for 25 years in the Persian Gulf state of Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy (news - web sites)'s 5th Fleet. A lifelong Republican, he says he's voting for Democrat John Kerry (news - web sites).
"I'm certainly not keen on President Bush (news - web sites)," said Potter. "Invading Iraq was a stupid thing to do."
Some say the outcome of the election matters greatly to citizens of other nations that bear the consequences of Washington's actions. One American has gone so far as to give his vote to Malaysians.
Eric Ossemig, a 38-year-old ex-Army soldier from Flagstaff, Ariz., is asking Malaysians to chose Bush or Kerry over the Internet, and says he'll cast his absentee ballot for whomever they choose.
"What may happen in some far-flung corner of the planet increasingly affects us all, like geopolitical tectonic plates," said Ossemig, a travel writer and photographer who has lived in Malaysia for 14 years. "I'm not voting my vote, I'm voting Malaysia's vote."
The site malaysiakini.com says it has encountered "several attempts to manipulate the outcome" with multiple votes. It gives Kerry a strong lead.
Republicans also are determined to get out the vote overseas, placing campaign ads in the International Herald Tribune and Stars and Stripes.
Mark Simon, 40, from Falls Church, Va., is an advertising director for a Chinese-language newspaper and vice chairman of Republicans Abroad in Hong Kong. He acknowledged Democrats in Hong Kong were doing more volunteer registrations and were better organized than the local GOP.
"Defending George Bush (news - web sites) at dinner parties with a lot of expats around is not easy," Simon said. "The fierce opposition to Bush ... kind of blunts the whole rah-rah attitude."
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Associated Press writers Dirk Beveridge in Hong Kong, Paula Jasudason in Kuala Lumpu, Adnan Malik in Manama, William Magnuson in Rome, and Alisa Tang in Bangkok contributed to this story.
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