Most of us think of US politics as something to watch, not participate in, but there are Sackville residents who can’t so easily wash their hands of the situation to the south.
Justin Liefer is one of them. Liefer and his wife Claire are both Mount Allison biology professors who have been living in Sackville since 2014. But they are also American citizens, and they take their right and responsibility to vote seriously.
The Liefers are helping to spread the word about Absentee Voters Week which ends this Sunday, October 4, 2020. It’s a campaign sponsored by the US State Department, to make sure all Americans living abroad get registered to vote.
“It’s difficult seeing turmoil and contentious times in our home country,” says Liefer, “and being away from it, and not able to do anything about it. So this is our way of trying to do something.”
Liefer says he has Canadians friends who follow US politics as much or more than they do Canadian politics. “And I can’t imagine how frustrating that must be when you can’t vote,” he says. “So this is a way for Canadians to participate as well, by just telling their American friends to go do their civic duty and vote.”
Absentee Voting Week is not just a promotional campaign, though. There’s also practical reasons why the push is on to get ex-pat Americans registered by October 4th.
According to a US state department release, in some US states, voter registration and ballot request deadlines for the November 2020 elections are as early as October 5th.
The State Department runs the Federal Voting Assistance Program to help expats, as well as armed forces personnel, get registered in their home state on time. US citizens anywhere in the world just need to complete a Federal Post Card Application to ensure they are able to participate as an overseas absentee voter.
“It’s a universal way of registering to vote and also requesting the ballot for your state.” says Liefer. “So even though every state in the US has its own arcane voting system, the one universal thing that they’ll all accept is this federal postcard from people abroad.”
Liefer jokes that it can actually be easier to vote for Americans outside of the country. “That’s the only way we’ll ever make it convenient for people,” he says, “if you leave the country and try to vote from abroad.”
All joking aside, because of different state timelines and the expected increase in mail-in votes this year, time is of the essence, says Liefer.
“If you do it in this timeframe, it’s highly likely that everything will be able to be processed in time, so that your ballot that you send back in isn’t late,” says Liefer. “So that’s why they’re getting it out this week.”
Liefer says Absentee Voting Week is a non-partisan campaign. It’s basically a Get Out The Vote campaign, aimed at raising voter turnout. He’s hoping that Canadians will help out by spreading the word to the Americans among them in real life and on social media.
“I’m generally confident that things would operate in a more positive and equitable way in the United States, if more people were engaged in the voting process, rather than only about 40% of the eligible voters who often vote,” he says.
“But that being said, there was record turnout in 2018 in the US, and it’s expected to be record turnout this year,” says Liefer. “But there’s also that whole pandemic thing. So, you know, it’s tough to project what’s actually going to happen.”
Mount Allison spokesperson Laura Dillman says there are 55 students from the US attending the university. If you or an American you know may be eligible to vote, the site to go to is FVAP.GOV. There you can find and fill out the federal post card application.
