US election: Race to get Americans in Finland signed up to vote

With less than 30 days to go until the US presidential election, the race is on to get Americans in Finland registered to vote.

US nationals are able to vote in the last state they lived, which means that marginal contests in swing states make every vote in places like Pennsylvania, Arizona and Wisconsin count - and they could make the difference between that state being called for Donald Trump or Kamala Harris.

Traditionally, the Democrats have the more extensive get-out-the-vote effort abroad, and Trump has already claimed that Democrats were “getting ready to cheat” by signing up voters in different countries - although his claim came without any evidence, and has been de-bunked. 

In Finland, the local chapter of Democrats Abroad has been working to ensure everyone who wants to vote knows their home state’s registration requirements.

“We do a lot of posting online, encouraging people to vote, there are also registration drives, we’ve had them all over the country,” explains Laura Wasserman.

“I think in Finland there’s probably 5,000 to 10,000 Americans and those numbers are going to be changing dramatically because of NATO, as there will be a lot of Americans coming to work at the new military base and training the Finnish military,” she tells Finland Insider.

Many Americans in Finland - Wasserman has been here for four years with her Finnish partner - are already registered to vote. But Democrats Abroad fields questions about how to get hold of absentee ballots, or how to return them to the US - as well as questions about children born in Finland to American citizens and whether they’re eligible to vote.

“Some people in our group have been here for 30 or 40 years, with their children born in Finland and grown up here. A long time. But a lot of younger people come and go back to the US for work or whatever, so they might need help with registration and voting,” Wasserman explains.

There’s no equivalent Republican Party organisation in Finland, but Republicans Abroad Norway says they’ve been working with the US Embassy to make the necessary information available to anyone who needs it.

“It’s a never-ending process because voters need to re-register to vote each year, and for each election, to be sure they get all the ballots and updated information,” says Austin Rasmussen, an American from Alaska who has been living in the Nordic nation for a decade with his Norwegian wife.

Which issues interest American voters abroad?

When it comes to deciding which candidate to vote for on 5 November - if someone hasn’t already made up their mind - what sort of issues might influence their decision-making process?

Rasmussen says that thanks to social media it’s “very easy for American voters living abroad to be just as swept up by a lot of the sensational stuff, as if they were living in the United States.”

However, he also points out some issues like taxation and tax reporting which Americans abroad are keen to see addressed by politicians, but which has gained little traction in Washington.

Laura Wasserman from Democrats Abroad Finland says voters here are not so concerned about the US economy or immigration policy, because “they don’t affect us so much.”

“Our biggest issues are going to be international safety and security, global warming and I still think LGBTQ rights are a big part of how we are voting,” she says, noting that her organisation took part in this year’s Helsinki Pride parade.

Why is this election so important?

Voter registration for November’s election is clearly important to both sides, with the Democrats reportedly earmarking $300,000 (€274,000) to reach the estimated 1.6 million voters from battleground states; while a Republican spokesperson recently told Politico that “The [Republican National Committee] is working hand-in-glove with the Trump Campaign to reach all eligible voters - including those abroad.”

So why is this election so important?

“It's important because Trump says it is,” explains Andrew Naughtie, a British journalist who reports on US politics and publishes the Memo from America newsletter about the presidential election campaign.

“This weekend he repeated his promise that he would "only" be a dictator "on day one", and he has more than once hinted that this election could be the US's last held under the current democratic system,” he tells Finland Insider.

“Donald Trump has also promised to issue a blanket pardon for the January 6 rioters, and he controls his party to the extent that even its more presentable senior figures will not publicly say he lost 2020 election fair and square even when asked directly.

“He also appears to have managed to avoid being prosecuted before the election for interfering with the certification of the 2020 result.”

Democrats Abroad Finland’s Laura Wasserman says this year’s election is important “on a couple of different fronts.”

She cites the war in Ukraine where she says “Trump will side with Putin,” and conflicts in the Middle East. “If Iran gets involved with nuclear weapons it’s scary to think Trump could be there with his finger on the trigger.”

Despite efforts to get people to register to vote, only around 8% of American voters overseas even bother to cast a ballot - that number rises to 47% for US military personnel stationed overseas.