Need an absentee ballot? Applying shouldn’t take longer than a coffee break

As the November 8 US presidential election approaches, the approximately 200,000 US citizens living in Israel who are eligible to vote should be readying their paperwork if they want their ballots counted. Fortunately, the process to request an absentee ballot is relatively quick and easy.

According to the Federal Voting Assistance Program, it takes only two steps to vote from overseas: 1) register and request your absentee ballot, and 2) fill out and send in your ballot once it arrives.

In truth, the process is a bit more complex than the FVAP’s two-step summary, but requesting an absentee ballot should not take more than 20 minutes.

David Schwartz, consul general at the US Embassy, told The Jerusalem Post that he hopes US citizens in Israel will exercise their right to vote and not believe any rumors that their vote does not count.

“It’s important for all American citizens, no matter where they live, to make their voice heard in the elections,” Schwartz said. “It’s a common myth that absentee ballots are counted only in the case of a close election. In reality, every valid absentee ballot is counted in an election. Every vote counts.”

The deadlines for requesting absentee ballots vary according to the voter’s state. If this election will be the applicant’s first time voting, he or she must first register to vote. The deadline to register to vote,

Republican presidential candidates are both perceived by Israelis polled to be much more pro-Israel than the current president, why does iVoteIsrael still exist?

The answer is that although iVoteIsrael did not succeed in achieving its perceived aim of unseating Obama, it did in succeed in its overt goal of empowering American citizens in Israel. The results of the last race’s voting in Israel proved there is a need for such an organization.

Thanks to iVoteIsrael’s massive campaign four years ago, 80,000 Israelis cast absentee ballots, quadrupling the number who voted absentee in the 2008 election.

Those 80,000 absentee ballots accounted for approximately 20% of all overseas absentee ballots cast worldwide in the race, even though Americans in Israel only account for 3% of overseas voters globally. iVoteIsrael punched above its weight in so-called swing states, such as Florida, where 7,500 ballots were cast from Israel, and Ohio with 3,500 ballots.

Ethan Charnoff, who took over iVoteIsrael two years ago, has never met or spoken to Shaviv. His volunteers come from both sides of the political map, and he does not even know the views of some of them.

“iVoteIsrael has to exist because there was no serious get-out-the-vote effort here before, and there is a significant constituency here,” he said.

“Despite the way it was perceived in the past, the purpose of the organization was never to get Republicans registered. We are doing something totally independent and non-partisan here. The underlying goal is to get as many Americans in Israel to register to vote as possible and to [consequently] get American politicians in the US to think about their constituents in Israel. That has always been our goal.”

Whether the organization will continue to succeed in that effort will be known after the votes are counted following the November 8 election. •