Congress Wants to Help You Vote

Are you mad at your Congressperson this year? As Voter Outreach Director for Overseas Vote Foundation, I hear that a lot. But here’s the beauty of democracy: Congress passed a law last year intended to make it easier for you to vote and, perhaps, fire him or her. Or give them another chance, as you like. Working for a nonpartisan nonprofit, I don’t involve myself in who you vote for: I just want you to vote from wherever you are in the November’s Congressional election when every seat in Congress and 36 Senate seats will be contested. And so does Congress. Really. In one of the few truly bipartisan legislative stories of 2009, Congress passed the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act. Its purpose? To modernize and facilitate voting in federal elections for the 6 million + U.S. citizens living overseas as well as active military and their dependents. 6 million? That’s an estimate; no one knows for sure but even with what is probably a lowball number, there are more of “us” than the populations of West Virginia, Nebraska, Idaho and Maine combined. So the MOVE Act is not a symbolic gesture; we’re talking about a real constituency here, U.S. overseas citizens. If you’re one of these, how does the MOVE Act help you vote in the 2010 Congressional elections? First of all, it forces the states – who are responsible for implementing overseas and military voting – to focus on our needs. In 1986, the federal government guaranteed the right of overseas citizens to participate in federal elections with the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA). Federal elections include General Elections for the offices of President, Vice President, and Congress (House of Representatives and the Senate). But, since 2986, there hasn’t been much federal action until last year with the enactment of the MOVE Act. Now, in the world of voting procedures and advocates, overseas voters are “in”. Some key points: * All states must make voter registration and absentee ballot applications available electronically, as well as General Election information. * States must provide you with an option to receive your blank ballot electronically – i.e., by email or fax. * All states must plan for a 45-day window for the ballot “round-trip”. This means several have already or will soon move their primary dates. * All states must accept a Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot online for when official ballots don’t arrive in time. * States may still ask for notarization on ballots but they can no longer reject your ballot for not being notarized. (Only a handful of states still require notarization, but try to find a notary in Dalian, China, as did one New Mexico voter who wrote to us recently, and you’ll know why the MOVE Act tries to eliminate this.) Note that the previous four-year validity of a ballot request will no longer be the standard across all states. This means you should plan on filing a registration/ballot request form every single election year in which you would like to participate. Most of this goes into effect as of the General Election on November 2. The point is: everyone is hoping (expecting?) more overseas voters to participate this year as a result of this lightening of the logistical load. At Overseas Vote Foundation, we’ve developed innovative online voting tools and services to simplify the overseas voting process because we believe that overseas citizens want to vote. First of all, there are specific issues that define, if not always unite, us as overseas Americans: citizenship issues and rights, healthcare, Social Security, trade policy, recognition of dual nationalities, and, of course, U.S. foreign relations with the country we’re living in. Second, we still care about the outcome of the races. Lots of French people wanted to vote in the American presidential race in 2008, so, of course, lots of Americans in France did too! But, finally, for those of us who have made new lives outside the U.S., voting remains an act that safeguards our identity as Americans. It is a recurring link with who we were before we left the U.S. and what living overseas has perhaps taught us to value even more: the father who fought in WWII, the brother who died in Vietnam, the college friends we argued politics with, the relatives we see affected right now by the current economic crisis. And it can be an essential way to teach our foreign-born children about their American heritage. Citizenship means more than our passports. And voting is an important part of what makes this true. Congress has made it easier this year for you to vote from overseas than ever before. So go ahead: here’s your chance to look a gift horse in the mouth if that’s how it is. But don’t pass up the gift. Vote 2010 – U.S. Congress – Register Now www.overseasvotefoundation.org   Paris Shuttle is the leading provider of pre-bookable airport transfers in Paris. Book your airport transfer with Paris-Shuttle.com and save up to 30%. Please post your comments or questions and let them flow. Register HERE to do so if you need a Bonjour Paris user name and password.