Can I Vote if I'm Living and Working Between Two Continents?

I moved abroad about three years ago as an independent business owner. I’m in the glass façade construction business. My business is headquartered in New York. I came here to be with my life partner and at the same time to reinforce my European subsidiary operation, which is based in Austria. Being here also gets me halfway to India, which helps me keep in touch with our Asian operation.

I still have a very strong connection to the United States, with a house there. I go back and forth between the two continents often.

Yes, I was an active voter, usually voting by absentee ballot in New York.

I knew I could vote from abroad but I did not know the mechanics of doing so. Having watched the spectacle of counting overseas ballots in the election year of 2000, I knew it was possible. But I didn’t know exactly how.

Fortunately, I have a go-to civic website and have a Voter Account. I’m on a list for election alerts and that’s how I was reminded to start the process to find out how to acquire my ballot.

I found it pretty easy once I got my absentee ballot. I filled it out and I sent it in. It was super easy. The only quirky thing was the envelope for New York State. They have some kind of interesting folding technique, but I learned that you don’t need to use that envelope as long as you sign the outside of a regular envelope, and it’s sealed and postmarked. Other than that, it was super easy.

Yes, I did have an issue in one voting cycle. I found the link to ballot tracking for New York on the US Vote site. I could see that my ballot had been sent, but I had not yet received it. It was getting late, so I felt compelled to also follow up with a phone call.

I called my election office directly. It was a little bit of an effort because some of the people in the election administrator’s office were working part time. But I got through and they sent me a secure email with the ballot, and I was able to download it and vote and send it back in time. So cool, it was instant to get my ballot online. Fortunately, I’m equipped to print it and send it back.

I, in fact, just assumed that it was counted.

I would say that if you’re not voting when you’re overseas it’s essentially your own limitation, because if you just go online the information is there for you to vote.

But you have to want to vote. I am a good case of that. When I came here, I had never voted from overseas. I got online and I was guided through the process in a very straightforward way and I was able to vote.

Just one point of practical advice – don’t wait till the last minute. My state of New York requires a form to come to them by post, printed and signed every year I want to vote. You have to give that some real time, I’d say 6 weeks at least before the election.

I have two sons who live in the U.S., and I talk to them frequently. I also have a business which engages me with the U.S. every single day, and I also have the opportunity to talk to different people in different parts of the country almost on a daily basis. Even though we’re talking business, there’s always some chit-chat about what’s going on in their local world and I have the benefit of that. So I feel very connected.

I follow certain news outlets. I try to look at a number of them to manage what is the truth and what’s made up…so I stay in touch in that way.

It feels great. I feel that I’m taking essentially the only civic action that I can take as a citizen. Unless I was in a government position of influence – it’s going to be voting. That’s it. That’s the only real action that I can take that has consequences.