US presidential election: Thousands of US citizens living in UK could miss out on postal votes

AMERICAN citizens living in the UK have attacked the US postal voting system after struggling to register for today’s election.

• US citizens could miss out on voting in today’s election as postal voting system accused of actively disenfranchising voters living abroad

• An estimated 250,000 US citizens are thought to live in the UK

Around 250,000 US citizens are estimated to live in the UK and their votes could prove crucial with presidential candidates Barack Obama and Mitt Romney neck-and-neck in the polls.

Yet complex state-specific rules and “ridiculous” communication from election officials has led to accusations that the system is fundamentally disenfranchising American voters living abroad, including military personnel.

Democrats Abroad, an organisation that campaigns for the president but registers voters of all political persuasions, said they have received hundreds of calls from Americans in Britain struggling to vote.

Omar Siddiqui, a 25-year-old investment banker from Birmingham, was born in the key swing state of Ohio but has been refused registration, despite believing he voted in 2004.

Mr Siddiqui had his request for an absentee ballot rejected by officials at Butler County, near Cincinnati, after his US passport and UK driving licence failed the criteria for “photo identification” because they did not show a current American address.

A spokesman for Democrats Abroad said Mr Siddiqui provided every documentation required by law. The case was taken up by law firm Edwards Wildman, which wrote to Butler County on Friday insisting Mr Siddiqui be granted an absentee ballot within 24 hours. No response has yet been received.

“I don’t understand why it has been stalling for so long,” Mr Siddiqui said. “Election day is today, I was well ahead of the deadlines that I had to meet. I have given them everything, I have been very proactive in emailing. I haven’t let it go and I have just been met with dead ends.

“I’m really astounded that, especially in such an important state, there’s so much negligence. It is just incredible. This is America in the 21st century and people are being denied votes. It is just unacceptable. I’m really furious about this.”

He continued: “This kind of stuff goes on in democracies that have just started or corrupt countries. You could never, ever expect this to happen in the United States.

“It is absolutely outrageous for American citizens to be denied their vote. People go to war to give people the right to vote, and here we are in the year 2012 in Ohio, in the United States of America, somebody is being denied the vote.”

Mr Siddiqui is not the only American citizen living in the UK who has struggled to carry out his democratic right and vote in what is being billed as one of the closest US elections of all time.

Nicholas Breakspeare, a 35-year-old communications worker who was born and raised in Florida but has lived in London for 11 years, has only just had his registration confirmed today.

Mr Breakspeare experienced problems voting in 2004 when his ballot paper arrived two weeks after election day.

This year he decided to make sure nothing went wrong by personally handing his completed ballot in at the American Embassy, which he said was guaranteeing delivery of the documents to local election offices.

Yet when Mr Breakspeare emailed his election office in Miami-Dade County, Florida - another key battleground state in the election - he was told there was no sign of the ballot.

“It was absolutely ridiculous,” he said. “I would consider the diplomatic mail service to be a very secure way of getting post from London, UK, to the US.”

It was only after printing his ballot again, giving it to a neighbour who was flying to Washington DC and having it posted in America that Mr Breakspeare got confirmation today that his vote had been received.

“In a country that’s meant to be so advanced, the strongest financially and otherwise, it’s completely back to The Flintstones. It’s totally stuck in the Stone Age,” he said.

“Our country is going round the world promoting democracy in nations across the world where there is conflict and turmoil and we can’t even get it right on our own home soil. It’s disgusting.”

Mr Breakspeare predicted that “hundreds of thousands” of the estimated six million American citizens living abroad could be facing similar problems with the US postal voting system.

Stephanie Stewart, 47, who runs the voter help desk for Democrats Abroad UK, said that while there had been improvements in the US system - 18 states now accept ballots by email - the fact that each state has its own specific requirements remains a problem.

Many states insist that envelopes containing ballots are stamped with the date and time, a practice common in America but rarely done in British post offices.

Wisconsin insists that the signing of an election ballot must be witnessed by an adult American citizen - an oddity that meant Mrs Stewart went to a service station near High Wycombe to witness a signature for a US voter who knew no other Americans.

“It is worrying,” she said. “I feel that state legislatures need to me more proactive. Their laws and systems allowing for overseas voters to be counted need to be more robust and in line with what federal law requires.

“A lot of these overseas voters are military and they are serving their country. It is not good to think that our military are serving their country abroad and putting their country on the line but not having their vote counted.”

The US embassy in London said: “We are unaware of any complaints from US citizens in the UK regarding voting.

“A large percentage of Americans have already voted by internet absentee ballots as there are no polling stations outside of the US.”