Can I Vote if I’m Living Abroad Indefinitely?

What brought me overseas was the opportunity to study, plus my great desire and love for Austria and The Spanish Riding School, and skiing. I was studying Art and Music at the California Institute of the Arts when I was accepted to Wagner College and moved to Bregenz, Austria near Lake Constance, which was absolutely beautiful.

Within 5 weeks, I met the man of my life and the father of my two children. Marriage took me to post-war 70’s Frankfurt, Germany, with lots of ruins still around. After having grown up in Los Angeles with all the luxuries, Cadillacs and Porsches and swimming pools, I thought it was cool. Suddenly, here I was in Europe taking the bus and train to get to the Music Conservatory. I have my BA in History from the University of Maryland, and attended both Frankfurt University and the Ludwig Maximilian University.

Over 10 years, I was the entrepreneur of a synagogue project, the most important project of my life (next to helping to rescue a palace outside of Weimar, Schloss Ettersburg). Anyway, I became steeped in Jewish history. When I went to Israel on a concert tour, I met the next great love of my life, who brought me to Munich.
 
Fast forward to a highly practical study specializing in animals. I had an animal practice in Munich for 20 years. This led me to my latest adventure: “dog reading.” In German, I called it “Lesehund.” It’s an organization that is growing by leaps and bounds with a lot of media interest, and as long as I can manage it, I'm fine. We now have seven Lesehund centers in Germany, a few teams in Holland and Austria, and one in Luxembourg and Switzerland. Altogether it’s about 150 teams around the world.

I vote in California; I'm from LA. It’s easy. But, I have to finance the stamps to send it. That's the only inconvenience. Despite that inconvenience, it’s so very important to me.
 

It must have been around the early 1980s. Long after I arrived in 1969.
 
I waited because I was so disinterested in American politics. I was getting Time magazine every week, and I just thought, “What a bunch of bozos,” you know, and so I just ignored it. But then, one time I thought, “Well, why don't I try it?” And so I registered and I did vote for something that was called, “peace and freedom.” And I thought, oh, that sounds good I want peace and freedom, so I'll vote. That was my first vote.
 
The next occasion came up on the heels of 2001 when the twin towers fell. I started to really read American newspapers because we were all shocked from 9/11. When I came back from the experience of 9/11 in America, I came upon an American expat group in Munich, and they were having meetings and I needed something. I needed to hold on to my country somehow. The meetings were fantastic and it was fun, and eventually I got involved in the election in 2004.

Yes, everything had changed by then. The process had been modernized. Somehow you knew you could do it. You were eligible to vote, you could apply. I started helping to register overseas voters. It was so much fun to get to know my fellow countrymen this way, those who were in Munich.
 

I don't have to register or request my ballot anymore, because it just comes automatically with all the voting material. 

Yes, automatically.

I just Google the people. They get all the information for the issues directly. I go through all of it. It interests me very much, and I'm trying to steer my state and my country as best as I can.

I am definitely informed on American policy. After 9/11, I became a real news junkie. Podcasts are my main source now. I consider myself an informed voter. 

It feels very much like an honor to be able to vote.

Yes, they are both dual citizens, Austrian and American. One is overseas, and one is in the U.S. They both vote in U.S. elections.

I don't really need to. They feel very much like I do that it's a privilege to be living here and be able to vote. They take it seriously. My daughter uses my home address in Los Angeles as her voting residence address. And that functions perfectly. 

I think it goes without saying that we represent our country, whether we want to or not. Any encounter that a foreigner may have with us could become something generalized that they apply to other Americans they meet. I've become more and more friendly to people here. That’s the feeling that I want to show; I want to project friendliness–an openness to anybody else who is friendly.