[hysan]

Yup, came here to say the same thing. Most people who haven't lived abroad for a significant amount of time don't realize the difficulty of trying to vote. In addition to that, the effectiveness of getting your voice heard by your "representatives" (the reps from your last permanent residence in the US) is much more difficult. I used to be able to pick up my phone and get myself heard on issues that I cared about. Living abroad, the best you can hope for is to contact your rep online and hope they care enough to give you a copy-pasted response.

[mikeash]

Why can't you call your representative while living abroad?

[hysan]

Time difference + cost makes it almost prohibitively difficult in my case.

[mikeash]

Unless you sleep for 16 hours a day, your waking time will overlap with office hours in Washington at some point. Skype can call to the US for very low cost.

[hysan]

Umm... do you even figure having a full time job into account? One that often goes into the weekends? Also, you are painting broad strokes.

1. With my time difference, I'd have to call my reps at a time when I'd normally be getting ready to sleep just to catch them in the morning.

2. In addition to that, not everyone has good internet connection. Especially if you live in a remote area. Prior to a year ago, my internet connection at home was fairly slow.

3. Yes, I'll admit that I forgot about Skype since it wasn't reliable for me in the first few years I was here. However, cost is cost. And having to manage Skype Credits, which I'd never use elsewhere, is just an extra burden compared to what it was like back in the States.

[mikeash]

I get that it's not quite as easy as it would be from the US. But "prohibitively difficult" makes it sound like you're looking for excuses rather than solutions. It might be a little harder but it's not exactly hard. Twenty years ago you'd be paying painful long distance charges just to make that call within the US.

[hysan]

Yes, I'll take back the prohibitively part since I had my internet upgraded a year ago. But prior to that, it was. Can you think of a way to do so without Skype? Or a reliable internet connection? Something that would be possible to do from home since the only overlapping hours are after 9/10pm in my timezone?

And aside from that, it still does not detract from my original statement:

> the effectiveness of getting your voice heard by your "representatives" (the reps from your last permanent residence in the US) is much more difficult

It's not just the contacting. It's also getting them to even care because you don't live on US soil. None of what I'm saying is an excuse, and I don't know why you seem intent on not acknowledging that it can be legitimately difficult.