Voting Outside the Country

This weekend I took a crash course lesson in voting outside the country. Armed with my computer and the knowledge that I NEED to vote in the upcoming election, I weaved my way through a plethora of information to figure out how to vote outside the country. I discovered it is much like voting absentee in the states. Did you know that most absentee ballots are submitted by people living outside the US? It makes me wonder just how many of "us" there are...it also makes me wonder why we choose to live in a country where we cannot vote, yet still want to vote in the country of our birth (or citizenship). I know my answer, I still plan on living back there someday, but it is still ironic when you think about it. The thing about voting absentee is that they don't even count the ballots until after the election is over. It makes me feel like my vote doesn't even count...the decision is made, THEN they count in my vote. Woohoo! Though the decision will still be made basically without my vote, I still find it my duty, or more, my privilege, to to cast my vote in the upcoming election.