In the interest of fighting ignorance (my own), what is U.S. policy towards the voting rights of people who are not residents of any state?
How about people who work overseas for US corporations- say the guy who represents Ford in Japan or something? What about international aid workers who feel a strong connection to their country, but serve the world in a way that transcends national boundaries?
Tough luck, basically. You don’t live there, you don’t get a say. If you’ve got a problem with it, don’t accept long-term overseas postings.
Now, in order to make it fairer on “temporary” overseas postings, I think a 2 or maybe 3 year limit is reasonable- anything less than that, you’re entitled to lodge a postal vote in your last registered electorate in your home country. Anything over those 2 or 3 years, you’re deemed to have moved overseas and you no longer get to vote in your “home” country’s elections until you return home.
Can’t vote. I know a fellow born in Saudi who never lived in the US and his parent’s state does not allow them to claim residency there. Still has to pay taxes to the US tho.
Do you think it is fair that one is not allowed to vote, yet has to pay taxes? (Americans have to pay taxes to the US no matter where they live).
Nah, that isn’t fair, but life’s not fair and most other civilised countries don’t expect taxes from their ex-pats, so ultimately I stand by my earlier response: If you don’t like it, don’t move overseas.
For some Americans it wasn’t a choice to move overseas - many were born outside the US, can’t vote, yet pay taxes. I have been away 8 years, pay tons of tax to the US and absolutely vote.
In the 2004 elections I paid about $60 to send my ballot by DHL as the local post was completely useless and unreliable.
That sucks, but there’s not really a lot anyone can do about it, is there?
That’s a personal choice you make and it’s fine. In an ideal world, you wouldn’t be paying taxes if you didn’t live in the US- but you wouldn’t be voting, either, IMHO.
If he’s never lived in the US, then he won’t be able to pass US citizenship to his child born overseas. (I don’t think I got that wrong. Feel free to correct me.)
You can vote via fax now.
I’ve voted in the local elections in my state. When I get the absentee ballot it has all the local candidates. I didn’t know who some of them were but the ones I knew I cast my vote.
You can write to your Congressmen and Senators to get these laws changed. I have written such letters to all my representatives.
I’ve never heard that… so would his kids be stateless? They’d never get citizenship of the country they’d be born in (Saudi). I am pretty sure they’d still be American. Do you have a cite for this situation - quite interesting.
You live in a very different world than I do. In my circles a 2-3 year assignment is considered a short vacation. I’ve been overseas 4 years, doing work that benefits American, and still consider myself very much American and concerned with American politics. Most of my American expat friends know way more about the issues than your average American.
I’d be cool with not voting on local issues, but not being able to cast a vote for President? That’d be a bummer.
Agree 100%. In the eight years I have been overseas, I have found most expat Americans to be far more concerned with politics than the average American. I think a large part of this is because US foreign policy tends to directly affect us.
The only way I’d give up my right to vote is if I did not have to pay any tax to the USA. As long as I am paying tax, I am going to vote.
Thanks very much. I’ve lived in the UK for 14 years now but still keep in touch with national and local issues via the internet, and still file tax returns. If I’m paying taxes, I damn well better be allowed to vote.
And Martini Enfield, as the response to your proposal that first came to my mind is something that is banned even in the Pit, let me merely say that I disagree with it.
No, because that is an idiotic standard without any real basis in fact nor indeed anything, but some sort of primitive, atavistic territorial tribalism more worthy of the 16th century than the 21st and its global economy.
Taking overseas opportunities on its face says fuck all about valuing having a “say” in a country (which I read as valuing the country itself, as that is the point of democracy). And relative to national interest it is by any historical example, flagrantly stupid and myopic to discourage citizen’s economic engagement overseas by bouts of expatriation, indeed long term expatriation.
In a global economy, one needs one citizens out not just as diplos, but as business managers and other private sector interest out developing global skill sets and exposed to changes in the global economy that may be brought back
Disenfranchising them over … what? A peevish and essentially primitive sense of territorial tribalism? Bloody daft policy.
The only instance where such a thing might make sense is an instance of where a diaspora of citizens outside the country presented such a significant voting block as to actually distort election results.
As I can’ think of any instance where this obtains, so it’s purely theory.
Except, ironically, the military, whose absentee ballots regularly impact upon election results.
The position in the past was that if you had no UK address, then you weren’t entitled to vote. Why should you, if you don’t live here any more, or pay taxes here any more? The Tories changed this, on the calculation that ex-pats would be more likely to vote Tory than anything else. I’d change it back again. If you don’t have a UK address, no vote. (with the usual savings for the Service vote and diplomatic staff posted abroad)
Not ironic at all, insofar as military service is not diaspora. But beyond that, typically when one says expatriate one does not mean those overseas for military service alone.