US elections: American citizens cast their vote from the UAE

Dubai - The US Mission in the UAE estimates there are 75,000 Americans living in the UAE, as in April 2020.

The US Embassy said American citizens in the country have shown a "strong interest" in voting from overseas.
"While we're unable to provide specific numbers, we have had increasing numbers of voters submit ballots for mailing in recent days," Jon Webster, Consul-General, US Embassy Abu Dhabi, told Khaleej Times in a statement.
The US Mission in the UAE estimates there are 75,000 Americans living in the UAE, as in April 2020.
The US Embassy in Abu Dhabi and US Consulate General in Dubai have been accepting election materials, including absentee ballots. When dropping their ballots at the missions, citizens were asked to bring a self-addressed and self-stamped envelope. After security staff screened the envelope, the voter saw it deposited into the secure drop box. The sealed absentee ballots in the locked ballot box are securely transferred from the missions to local elections officials in the US.
When asked how crucial absentee voting is in deciding the outcome of the elections, Webster said: "US elections for the House and Senate have been decided by a margin smaller than the number of ballots cast by absentee voters. All states are required to count every absentee ballot as along as it is valid and reaches local election officials by the absentee ballot receipt deadline."
A study published by the US Federal Voting Assistance Programme (FVAP) in July 2020 analysing the overseas citizen population during the 2018 elections estimates there are 2.9 million voting age Americans living abroad. In 2018, the global rate of overseas voter participation was 4.7 per cent, while in the Middle East it was 1.9 per cent.
anjana@khaleejtimes.com 

• Dubai