Approximately half of some 42,000 registered US voters living in Israel are voting in swing states such as Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, and could have an effect on the turnouts of those elections, according to Shimon Greenspan, director of the nonpartisan Vote From Israel organization, which helps Americans living in Israel to register and cast their absentee ballots.
A paper ballot is placed in a ballot box (illustrative)
Photo: AP
"If the election is close, as it was in the past two [presidential] elections, then the deciding votes could be coming from Israel," he said.
According to the organization, Israel has the third-largest group of American voters abroad, behind Canada and Britain.
While the largest number of registered US voters in Israel come from New York or New Jersey, two states heavily in the Democratic camp according to polls, the next two states are the key battlegrounds of Ohio and Florida. Several thousand votes will likely be going to those swing states from Israel.
Furthermore, the significance of the votes from Israel could be magnified because they will come well before the November 4 election. Their choices, to be reported next week in an Israel-based exit poll commissioned by Vote From Israel, could influence American Jews in the United States, believes Greenspan.
This could slightly help Republican hopeful John McCain if an August poll by KEEVOON Research, Strategy and Communications remains accurate. That poll, which surveyed Israelis generally and not American voters in the country, gave the Arizona senator some 38 percent support, compared to 31% for Democratic nominee Barack Obama.
It is difficult to gauge how the "Israeli" vote will go, says Greenspan, because Americans in Israel often vote on issues beyond foreign policy. For example, he says, many maintain business ties to the US and are concerned about taxes.
Vote From Israel will hold events in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv on October 26th and 28th, in which registered voters can drop off their ballots and, if they have yet to receive ballots from their state or country, submit a federal ballot provided by the organization.
