Asa Cotterman is a Texan living 5,000 miles away from home, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This year, he’s determined to vote, but doing so has become more complicate than he’d expected. Aside from the language barrier, Cotterman has had to negotiate stalled postal services in Argentina and the United States because of the pandemic, as well as complicated rules for submitting a backup ballot in case there are issues with his first one. And paying for shipping to make sure the ballot gets to election officials in time can be costly – upwards of a couple hundred dollars in Argentine currency, he says. But it matters to him because millions of Americans live and work abroad; they represent about 3% of the total vote, but Cotterman says few actually participate.
(Here’s guidelines on how to vote while abroad from the Association of Americans Resident Overseas.)