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Thursday, January 31, 2008

Democrats to vote in the “51st state”

By Jeremy Schwartz | Thursday, January 31, 2008, 10:51 AM

Here’s an interesting nugget about the potential political power of ex-pats: more than 6 million Americans live abroad, more than in 24 U.S. states. But ex-pats generally play a minor role (putting it nicely) when it comes to deciding elections back home, often because few go through the onerous process of securing an absentee ballot.

But Democrat ex-pats now have a second option if they want to weigh in on the presidential election: Democrats have created a so-called Global Primary, in which Americans living abroad will vote as a block and actually send delegates (22) to the Democratic convention in Denver. Today is the last day to sign up for the Democrats Abroad group, which will allow ex-pats to vote by Internet or by fax between Feb. 5 though the 12 (even if you don’t sign up, you can vote in person at voting booths throughout Mexico). The Global Primary isn’t a chance to double dip, however. If you vote by absentee ballot from your home state, you can’t vote again in the global primary.

There is also a Republicans Abroad group, which helps Republican ex-pats get absentee ballots for individual states, but as of yet has not organized an Internet voting system.

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