Obama or McCain? Echoes in India too

While the Democrats and Republicans battle it out over the US presidency, they’ve got a mini-war going in India as well — for the absentee voter. In 2004, Democrats Abroad (DA), the international wing of the party for supporters outside the US to rally around, set up an India chapter. In May, Republicans Abroad (RA) did the same. With the elections just a few months away, both groups are now trying to ‘Get Out The Vote’ — a campaign to identify US voters living in India and convince them to vote by absentee ballot, while also trying to swing the fence-sitters. “After the close call in 2000 [when George W Bush scraped past Al Gore to get elected], we’ve realised that every vote counts,” says Rita Soni, chairperson of the Mumbai chapter of Democrats Abroad. With more expats moving to India, there is a sizeable constituency to fight over.

The DA or RA are not lobby groups. But having set up chapters here — and with a growing population of American expatriates moving to India — many members feel the need to highlight India-related issues at the parent party level. Democrats Abroad-India is now sending a representative, country chairperson Carolyn Sauvage-Mar, to the National Convention in Denver in August. She will cast her vote, on behalf of Democrats voters in India, to confirm Barack Obama as the official nominee for President. But Sauvage-Mar didn’t just walk into that role. She was elected to be part of a 22-member international delegation after several rounds of internal voting at a Vancouver meet earlier this year. The members all represent a country each, and there’s a chance that Sauvage-Mar, representing India, might have lost out to some other country. But she was happy to play the ‘India’ card. “I told them I’m working hard to raise the profile of DA here and garner more votes,” she says. “It worked, because I was elected.” Says Renee Nielsen of Republicans Abroad-India, “People of Indian origin are the highest income minority group in the US. You can’t ignore them anymore.”

That’s why tapping Indian-Americans, many of whom have relocated to India recently, is priority. Democrats Abroad-India now have their own website and sub-chapters in Mumbai and Delhi, with another three planned in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai. The Republicans are trying to get their bye-laws and organisation rules in place. Both sides are making hectic parleys for supporters. “I’m surprised at the number of Republican voters I’ve found in India,” adds Nielsen, who is based in Mumbai.

The absentee ballot is a tedious process that many overseas voters are reluctant to follow through. That’s where DA and RA will also play a role. Not only will they coax prospective voters through the procedure, they will also facilitate it through websites like DA’s www.votefromabroad.org. In 2004, US citizen Amanda Engelland-Gay who was working in Scotland, had to sit out the Primaries (the initial voting step where the final Presidential candidates from each party are selected) because she had no idea where to get her vote registered. “It’s awful to be disenfranchised for living and working abroad,” says Engelland-Gay, 24, a project manager with a US retail chain. In February the youngster, who currently lives in Mumbai, flew to Delhi to cast her ballot in the Primaries. As a US citizen settled here puts it: “We belong to a country whose policies impact the entire world. We need to have a hand in shaping that - as many of us as possible.”                
l_ghosh@dnaindia.net