Three earnest Obama volunteers sit at a folding table stacked
high with voter registration forms. People walk by and smile when
they see the “Change We Can Believe In” signs. Most of them cannot
register to vote, however, as they are not American citizens. This
bustling main street is in Berlin, Germany.
International Voter Registration has caught on in a big way
among Obama supporters, with good reason. There are an estimated 6
million registered Democrats living outside the United States. In
2004 only 1 million Americans total requested international
absentee ballots.
Democrats Abroad has launched a website called
votefromabroad.org, an interactive tool that guides users through
the process of registering to vote and requesting an international
absentee ballot. American actress Gwyneth Paltrow, herself an
expatriate living in London, appeared in an online ad for the site
that debuted on August 4.
Within 24 hours, votefromabroad.org had registered voters from
87 different countries and 45 states. A group called Democrats
Abroad for Obama proclaimed August 9 to be “International Voter
Registration day.”
Frustrated with the Bush administration, increasing numbers of
Democrats living internationally are exercising their right to vote
— a right many only recently learned they possess.
Miriam Volkmann, an American citizen who has lived abroad for
over 30 years, did not know she was eligible to vote until she
became active in the anti-war movement. She is now volunteering for
Obama.
Paltrow’s ad will only be available online, as there is no one
foreign concentration of U.S. citizens large enough to warrant the
purchase of television airtime. Thus, on August 9 volunteers around
the world hit the streets looking for unregistered Americans.
OBAMA’S SUPPORTERS in London marked the day with a so-called
International Search Party.
Over 45,0000 Americans make their home in the British capital.
So volunteers canvassed the streets, listening for people who say
“poh-tay-toh” instead of “poh-tah-toh.” They had been advised to
visit parks and look for groups playing American football. In the
run up to November 4, Democrats in London will set up phone banks
where UK-based volunteers can call Americans and urge them to go
vote.
Democrats in Berlin had gotten off to a running start thanks to
Obama’s speech here last month. According to official figures,
there are around 13,000 Americans living in Berlin. Some estimates
put that number closer to 20,000. But how to find them?
On International Voter Registration Day, Obama volunteers braved
chilly winds and overcast skies to set up tables in four different
locations across the city. Around 30 volunteers worked 3-hour
shifts, and their efforts resulted in a total of 33 new
registrations.
Generally, one volunteer sat at the table to register people
while two others walked through the surrounding neighborhoods,
listening for the strains of American English. A volunteer muttered
“this is ridiculous” as she eavesdropped on conversations in an
open-air market.
One of the tables was set up at Belluno’s Italian Cafe, but a
whole morning passed without the discovery of a single unregistered
American. At one point, a man speaking perfect English with a
slight California lilt approached the table. He was a German
citizen who had lived in the US for many years and wanted to
recommend some popular American expat hangouts.
The volunteers hoped to find a high concentration of Americans
at the German-American Folk Festival. They set up a registration
table across from a red, white, and blue bingo tent covered in
pictures of Uncle Sam and a life-size cutout of Samuel Adams
holding up a pint of his beer.
The German-American Folk Festival is essentially a fair like the
ones found all over the US. Each year the festival showcases the
culture of a different American state. This year it was
Massachusetts, and event staff sported shirts with the slogan
“Indian Summer in Berlin.”
Tucked in between various rides was a small wooden stand manned
by a young woman dressed as an American Indian. She was keeping
warm in a brown sequined hoody while handing out brochures with
information about Massachusetts. There was also a Pilgrim at the
fair, but she had just gone to the bathroom. The two work for the
Plymouth Plantation outdoor museum in Massachusetts.
They two had been shipped out to Berlin for the festival for two
weeks, so they did not need to apply for international absentee
ballots.
MOST OF THE PEOPLE who approached the registration table at the
Folk Festival were Germans wishing to express their love for Obama.
One German woman had children who were US citizens. She picked up
forms to pass on to them.
An American man who was already registered stopped to chat with
the volunteers. “I supported Hillary in the primaries and won’t be
voting for Obama unless he makes her his VP at the convention in
two weeks,” he warned.
Gywneth Paltrow’s ad stresses that voting from abroad is “easy,”
but that is not always the case. A voter is required to list their
last U.S. address or — if they have never lived stateside — their
parents’ last US address, along with the name of the county in
which that address is located.
International voter registration and absentee ballot requests
are handled by local county boards of elections, which can be
tricky. One zealous Obama volunteer brought along a huge U.S.
highway map on which he could look up a county if necessary.
The website votefromabroad.org has a registration form that can
be printed out at home on standard copy paper. The official form
used by the Obama volunteers, however, is oversize, requiring about
$6 in postage. The U.S. consulate will mail them out for free on
certain days, but many expatriates are turned off by the prospect
of going through tight consulate security.
Also, if a voter’s last US address was in American Samoa or
Guam, the registration form must be officially notarized. If a
voter does not have a social security number — which is the case
for many foreign born children of US citizens — some states
require them to obtain a special code to fill in instead.
OF COURSE, Americans living abroad can do more than vote. They can
also donate money. On October 15 Michelle Obama will host a
fundraiser in London for U.S. Obama supporters based there.
George Clooney will speak at an Obama fundraiser in Zurich on
September 2nd with tickets going for $1,000 a piece. Democrats in
Berlin are planning their own fundraiser on August 31st. Tickets
cost $47 a piece in honor of Obama’s 47th birthday. U.S. citizens
only may purchase tickets, but they may bring a foreign national as
their guest.
When it comes to soliciting donations from Americans living
abroad, John McCain is actually somewhat ahead of Obama. In March
he headlined a fundraiser at London’s Spencer House, a home built
by ancestors of the late Diana, Princess of Wales. In June Cindy
McCain co-hosted a $500,000 fundraiser in London with former
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
Not everyone is pleased that American campaign fundraisers are
being held on foreign soil. The legal watchdog group Judicial Watch
filed a complaint against the first McCain event, asking the FEC to
investigate possible illegal donations by foreign nationals.
Legal trouble is just one of many potential pitfalls in the
“undiscovered country” of taking US campaigns abroad. Some
Americans will be unhappy to find that individuals who have never
lived in the United States are eligible to vote because one of
their parents is a citizen, and that candidates are encouraging
them.
But with a likely bruising election ahead, the Obama and McCain
camps are looking for every advantage that they can find — at home
or abroad.
Emma Elliott is a writer in Berlin.
