Organisation Aims To Count Number Of US Expats Around The World

The Overseas Vote Foundation (OVF) began a new initiative this year to count the number of US Expats around the world.

London, UK (Pryce Warner International) June 16th, 2011 – The OVF is a non-profit orginasation that aims to encourage US Expats to take part in federal elections. The new initiative was started after it was realised there was no official data on the exact amount of US citizens living abroad.

Facebook and Twitter are playing a large role in the OVF’s appeal for US Expats to “stand up and be counted” and are being to used to encorouage people to register on their dedicated website so that the OVF can get an accurate estimation of how many US Expats there are.

Not only is there no official data on the number of US Expats but there is also no data on which countries they are in. Previous estimations have always been unofficial and therefore it has been highly difficult for any organisation to have a reliable number. This has caused the OVF considerable problems in the past as they have been unable to track how many overseas voters they needed to appeal to.

The present project is asking people simply to sign up to the website and provide some basic information. The OVF feel that previous efforts have failed as a result of asking participants to fill out too many lengthy forms. These previous attempts have produced estimates of the US Expat population as being anywhere between 4-10m people.

US citizens never lose the right to vote, regardless of their country of residence or how long they have been abroad for. This means that Expat voters can often play a key role in US elections. With a presidential election next year and a highly divisive elctroal climate, the overseas vote seems to be even more important that ever, and is one of the key reasons that the OVF is stepping up it’s efforts to get a reliable estimate of US Expats.

David Harra, a Senior Market & Investment Analyst with Pryce Warner International Group, a Financial Services Group for Expats worldwide commented: “Numerous countries that have significant proportions of Expats often have inaccurate or incomplete numbers as it is difficult to track the exact amount of the people that leave, enter or return. This has long been a particular problem in America where millions of eligible voters have perhaps been excluded unnecessarily from elections simply due to a lack of proper investment in securing data. Any American Expats that are living overseas would do well to sign up to the site as it will prove highly valuable in the long run. Not only in terms of ensuring Expats can vote, but also so that the government has an accurate picture of how many Expats are based overseas and can therefore allocate resources and consular services more apporiately.” Pryce Warner International Group provide International Asset & Investment Management, Independent Financial Advice & QROPS Overseas Pensions.

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By: Aneil Fatania
Financial Editor
Pryce Warner International Group
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