Israel Matzav

Could Americans living in Israel determine the US election's outcome?

I'd like to talk a bit about Americans living in Israel voting in the US election in November. But first, let's go to the videotape.



You might recall that in this post, I posted a PowerPoint presentation that showed how many American Jews could vote in the US Presidential election and the States in which they were eligible to register. The number of US citizens living in Israel with the right to vote in the US elections is estimated at 163,395.

If you look at slide #4 of that presentation, you will see that while by far the largest contingent of American voters comes from New York, there are also large numbers of Americans residing in Israel who are entitled to vote in the battleground states of Florida, Ohio and Michigan. In fact, you will recall that when Governor Romney came here in July, the word was that he was pitching for Florida's vote. He just might not have realized that he was pitching to Florida voters who actually live in Israel.

Florida voters constitute about 3%, Ohio voters constitute about 4% and Michigan voters constitute about 2%. Using 163,395 as the base (which I understand is a conservative estimate), that would make 4,902 transplanted Floridians, 6,536 transplanted Ohioans and 3,268 transplanted Michiganers. Enough to make a difference?

In 2000, George Bush won Florida by 537 votes.

Decide for yourselves. And get out there and register.

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Campaign 2012, Mitt Romney

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:35 PM