Voting in the US elections from Greece

The US Capitol is seen as Congress resumes following a long break for the midterm elections, in Washington, early on Monday. Greek-American members of Congress who were on the ballot - Gus Bilirakis, John Sarbanes, Dina Titus, Chris Pappas, Nicole Malliotakis - were all re-elected. [SCOTT APPLEWHITE/AP]

Greeks and other Europeans are deeply curious about the November 5 US elections. Most of them recognize that the outcome of these elections will affect their country and themselves personally. Many of them say they wish the international community had a vote.

Actually, a significant number of Greeks DO have a vote. In fact, they have enough votes, if they had used them, to have changed the outcome in previous elections. There are millions of people with US citizenship living outside the United States - 80,000 or more in Greece alone. Most of them have the right to vote by mail or email in federal elections for president and Congress. 

Receiving a US absentee ballot is Greece is straightforward, a matter of sending in the Federal Post Card Application (FPCA), which all US states accept both as a voter registration form and as a ballot request. Two websites will...

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