The 51st State

The Washington Post says the 51st state... is all of us out here in expat-land. And boy howdy, if we aren't signing up to vote in droves!

"People are motivated," King said. "You have people literally coming out of the woodwork to register. This is a very contentious, personal election. People really feel that it's going to affect them personally." He said Republicans were also planning advertising blitzes in foreign newspapers this summer and fall to register more voters.

Officials at the Federal Voting Assistance Program, the government agency that handles overseas voting, said that in 2000 they had 250,000 requests for voter registration applications from U.S. citizens living abroad. This year, as of earlier this month, they had sent out 340,000, and they expect to mail many more before the November election.

It goes without saying, if you haven't sent in your FPCA, what're you waiting for? Go do it! Now!

Comments

[Nick]

Does anybody care about this website anymore? Has it become lame beyond recognition?

[Luke]

I guess nearly 1000 people a day don't think so. What's your specific beef Nick?

[Arthur O'Keefe]

Re expat votes being "the 51st state", there's one thing we should be concerned about: If expats are seen by the Bush administration as being statistically more likely to vote for Kerry, we may see an attepmt at vote-blocking such as occured if Florida. Except this time they've got the resources of the entire federal government to aid them instead of just having Jeb Bush in the Florida governor's mansion. Hopefully the Democrats and other parties have anticipated this and are prepared.