NPR has a great story about the very real challenges that US citizens face to submit their absentee ballot. Since it's up to the precincts to distribute absentee ballots, generally they arrive at their foreign destinations past the election date if at all. Some remote voters depend on their relatives to trade FedEx items, some avoid the entire process out of frustration, and there will always be those who just aren't interested.
The Federal Voting Assistance Program is making an effort, though, to assist overseas voters. They're trying to mail out the ballots faster and earlier, and they're even accepting ballots by email! More details are listed here on their website, which list that emails must adhere to an acceptable character set and contain a signature attachment. No recommendations for size of message though.
Internet Voting isn't a new idea. The SERVE project summary hints at the scope of potential security explosions, and a research group in Sweden also looked at the possibility. The Internet Voting Technology Alliance wants to start the discussion, and I'd like to, too. If you're going to be out of the country, I think I'd rely upon the net over snail mail. What do you think?
As an American citizen living abroad, I'm torn on the subject of voting online or with a paper ballot. I just received my paper ballot for the general election and it's very straightforward. However, the process of getting it and printing it online can be a bit annoying, considering that the printout was 9 pages long. (Check out VoteFromAbroad.org)
I also just helped out with a registration drive here in Düsseldorf with the Democrats Abroad. We definitely met citizens who were confused about printing the application for a ballot online, especially considering that different states have different requirements.
If anything, I think the best way is to get citizens aware of how to vote from abroad, whether it is online or not. When I helped register people, they were unaware that they even had to register, or just how to go about it. I felt that volunteering was actually a service to people and more useful than just saying, "Hey, go vote." We also reminded people that in case they don't receive their paper ballots on time (middle of October generally), that they can do a write-in ballot and it would count (even if they wrote Obama or McCain in).
Posted by: Patricia | September 30, 2008 at 12:54 PM