The American Politics Society has been running voter drives ahead of the US midterm elections on 3 November, with the final drive taking place this Friday, 23 October, from 1pm to 3pm, in the Great Hall on Strand Campus.
The initiative aims to help American students at King’s vote from abroad.
All 435 House of Representatives seats, 35 Senate seats and 36 governorships are on the ballot.
“There are a lot of American students who are in London who are able to [vote] but just don’t know how or just don’t have the resources,” said Natalia, the Chief of Staff of the American Politics Society.
Natalia is also a trained voter assistant volunteer. She will be on hand to guide students through the voting process and advise them on the best way to send their ballots back.
The platform that is used in the voter drives is VoteFromAbroad.org.
US citizens abroad can vote in the midterm elections by requesting an ‘overseas absentee ballot’, which can be submitted via email, fax or by international postage, depending on their home state.
If a student is a US citizen who has never lived in the country, they are still eligible to vote using their parents’ or guardians’ address.
However, as reported in The Washington Post, the Pentagon recently developed a new version of the voting form which may make it difficult for overseas citizens who have never lived in the US to register to vote.
The new form removes a checkbox that allowed voters to declare they are US citizens, but have never lived in the country. The adult children of US citizens who have long lived abroad also fall under this category, often referred to as ‘never residents’.
“I think voting is one of the single most important things these young people can do to get policies and goals enacted,” said Natalia.
The drives have been held in the Great Hall over the past few weeks, the first on 5 October and the most recent on 20 October.
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