Hi folks,

I mostly lurk around here, and don't post but once in a blue moon but I thought I'd post a bulletin for Americans ex-pats.

For those interested in the U.S. primary elections there is a new way for ex-pats to participate by fax or online. Here's an article on one of my favorite political sites, The Daily KOS, which gives you more info. It has links to the Democrat and the Republican websites.

If you live abroad...

Happy voting!

I saw this in USA Today the other day and will be writing something on my blog about this shortly.

FYI though, online voting in primaries is only possible for registered Democrats as the Republican party isn't set up for this yet; you can still vote in person at least on the Democrat side and the sites are listed on the Democrats Abroad site (linked to in the article above).

I have to admit I haven't researched the Republican side of things

For those wishing to register and vote via absentee ballot in primaries or the general election see www.fvap.gov or http://www.overseasvotefoundation.org/

Just a reminder for anyone voting online in this primary- 31 Jan is the last day to sign up, then 5 Feb is the primary.

I was just looking at the form to apply for absentee voting. We maintain our residence in Nevada to which we return for a couple of months every year. On the form it asks if you are outsdie the US temporarily or indefinitely. Are there any ramifications of saying you are outside the country indefinitely? Thanks, Sz

No, it just means you don't have a definite return date- you don't know if you'll be returning in 6 months or 6 years.

Wow, that was the easiest vote I've ever cast. Took about 3 minutes, and that's with dial-up. With ADSL might make it in under 1 minute.

Much better than standing in a long line and worrying about hanging chads, wasn't it?

I registered by the deadline and am all set with my sign-in numbers to vote online, but am STILL dithering about my choice of candidate. My head's for one, my heart's for another. I haven't had this much difficulty making up my mind for many years, but I'm very happy and encouraged to have what I consider to be excellent people on the ballot this year. And what a nice thing to be able to vote online from Italy and not have had to go through the ballot request process from the USA!

I too am still trying to decide...I just posted a blog about it. what a difficult decision, but I'm so happy that we get to participate in the process!

I agree the process was very painless and fun! If only other government related tasks could be so easy...

Obama has won the Democrats Abroad Global Primary http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/02/21/obama-w...rats-abroad-contest/

Here's a breakdown of the voting by country. I was surprised 1250 voted in Italy. That's a lot of expats.
http://www.democratsabroad.org/sites/default/files/DA%2...esults%20FINAL_0.pdf

I got the email, but hadn't seen the breakdown by country. That is a lot of expats. And, just think, that's only the Democrats.

I am actually surprised that it was so few.

I had to gloat a little to my Republican expat friends that the Republican party didn't offer the option of voting abroad in the primary.

I teased "Those Republicans, always trying to suppress the vote, even of their own"...

I suspect that many expats who have been here for awhile get their ballots in the mail and use them. Thus the lower number which I assume was the count for those who voted in the expat primary.

"Those Republicans, always trying to suppress the vote, even of their own"...

More on this http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iESYvotVWdVsWGpVw34dUmJAYvlAD8VE050G0

There was also a good story about the Global Primary yesterday on NPR Weekend Edition Sunday. They mentioned there are 6 million Americans living abroad- I ddn't realise we were that many. You can hear it here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=10