Rasmussen Still Has It As A One-Point Race - What About Overseas Voters?

by Steve

For those who like proof that Newsweek, Time, and other pollsters claiming a large single-digit or double-digit Bush lead are full of it, I give you today’s Rasmussen daily tracking poll, where Kerry is now less than a point behind Bush (47.2%-46.4%). In fact, Kerry has rebounded from one of his lowest numbers in weeks yesterday and Bush has fallen to his lowest number in over a week.

And from the Electoral Vote Predictor Website, Kerry holds a 269-233 lead at the moment, with this interesting piece of news:

I have it on good authority that overseas voters are registering in huge numbers this time, maybe double or triple 2000. I was told that the number of people who showed up at the Democratic Party caucus in England earlier this year was 10 times what it was in 2000, ditto in other countries. Americans overseas vote in the state they last lived in, even if that was decades ago. There are about 7 million overseas Americans and probably about 5 million are over 18. In Florida, it was the overseas absentee ballots that swung the election. I believe that something like 8% are military, but the rest are students, teachers, artists, government workers, business executives, spouses of foreign nationals, missionaries, retirees, and more. What is significant here is that these people represent a lot of votes and are not included in any of the polls.

True, no one seems to be paying attention to the likely impact of overseas voters this year, aside from assuming that they are all military, when in fact they are not. And keep in mind that these overseas voters haven’t been polluted with our Bush-friendly political coverage here at home, and have experienced first-hand how America and Bush are viewed in the world.

Update: Check out this site, which assists Americans living overseas to register to vote and obtain absentee ballots.