Project seeks to count overseas U.S. citizens

Here we are, going into another major general election year in the U.S., and we don’t know any more about how many overseas U.S. voters are dispersed around the world and where they are than we did last time around.

The U.S. just held its 2010 Census – a once-in-a-decade effort – but it does not include U.S. citizens living abroad. Although it is said there are millions of us, and we have seen elections turn on one vote coming in from overseas, we have only rough estimates of how many of us live abroad.

Overseas Vote Foundation is working with international and domestic organizations on the U.S. Overseas Citizens Count Project. Its goal is to determine the number of U.S. citizens living abroad and how they are dispersed geographically.

The foundation has launched a website, www.counting-citizens-abroad.org, making it quick and easy for every citizen abroad to be counted from anywhere in the world. Through July 15, U.S. citizens and their families can sign up to be counted at the website and help spread the word to their friends.

This is a nonpartisan project meant to serve overseas citizens.