Should expatriate citizens of your country have the right to vote?

[anominominominous@polyglot.city]

@evan if they care enough about our country's issues, sure..but many expats don't care anymore, and imho they're right..Italy is a cesspool

[renata@cosocial.ca]

@evan As a Brazilian citizen, it’s mandatory for me to vote for president every 4 years even though I don’t live there.

I lose the right to renew my passport if I don’t. Brazil sees voting as a responsibility not a right - you can go to the polls and void your ballot but you have to show up.

I have opinions on the subject after voting as a Canadian citizen for many years.

[stinerman@mastodon.social]

@evan yes, but folks like yourself should have a special representative in the House and Senate rather than voting wherever you last were resident.

[mpjgregoire@cosocial.ca]

@evan @stinerman
Yes. It should be done as in France: there are at present eleven deputies who represent French citizens abroad.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_legislative_constituencies_for_citizens_abroad

[mpjgregoire@cosocial.ca]

@renata
Would you lose your Brazilian citizenship by not voting in Brazilian elections, or just the passport?

@evan

[edwing@mstdn.moimeme.ca]

@evan I would say no.

My rationale: Who am I as a resident and citizen of another country to decide what the residents of my other citizenship country wish/want. I don’t pay taxes there, I don’t participate in their active life, etc. For all intents and purposes, they are foreigners

[renata@cosocial.ca]

@mpjgregoire @evan Just the passport, you have to pay a fine and if you don’t you can’t do a bunch of things - makes your life annoying.

My father passed and I had skipped one election, I had to regularize my electoral status at the consulate to be able to get a lawyer in Brazil and get the estate stuff going.

[brooke@bikeshed.vibber.net]

@evan Americans are required to pay taxes to the US when we work abroad, though we're certainly not consistent on "no taxation without representation" :)

[ristkof@mastodon.social]

@evan no taxation without representation

[malte@radikal.social]

@evan Yes, but not on local elections if you've been away for a long time. Another but: That there's some balance between the voting rights of expatriate citizens and people living in my country without citizenship (many of whom currently can't vote, but have lived here longer than some expatriate citizens and have a higher stake in what happens to the country).

[insom@tiny.tilde.website]

@evan Yes, but only for federal matters (assuming a government with local/provincial/federal splits) and, as a matter of taste, only if you plan to return or for your family to return.

If you haven't got a stake in that country's future (and will not feel the effects of its policies) I do not think you _should_ vote, but given that's unenforceable, then I think you should _be allowed_ to.

[fdrc_ff@www.foxyhole.io]

@evan@cosocial.ca are you guys actually implying there are scenarios in which a citizen of a country shouldn’t be allowed to vote for their country?
Like, for real? ​​
wtf is citizenship for then?

[clacke@libranet.de]

@malte I like that the EU requires local elections to allow EU citizen local residents to vote, and I like that Sweden goes further and allows all local residents of age to vote in local elections.

@evan

[alisonw@hachyderm.io]

@evan
If you choose to not live in a country then why should you get the privilege of a vote in that country?

[davidbhimself@mastodon.social]

@evan Who on Earth doesn't vote "Yes" ?
People who don't understand what citizenship is, I presume.

[davidbhimself@mastodon.social]

@mpjgregoire @evan @stinerman It's a good idea in theory, but in practice it's a bit silly. My representative represents Russia, most of Asia and Oceania. Three regions that have little in common. Our previous representative was a Putin-controlled asshole. A current one is a business woman from HK or Singapore, I even forget. Neither is "representative" of anything.

[davidbhimself@mastodon.social]

@EdwinG @evan That's such an Anglo thing to associate taxes and voting rights. Very "democratic" idea. So people who are too poor to pay taxes, shouldn't have the right to vote either? Only landowners like in the good olden days? Probably white and male too, right?

[davidbhimself@mastodon.social]

@fdrc_ff @evan Yes, some people are. They're making me angry right now.

[davidbhimself@mastodon.social]

@alisonw @evan Because voting is either a right or a duty, not a privilege. Because citizenship is a thing.

[davidbhimself@mastodon.social]

@evan From some answers, I see a lot of people have the good old landowner (male and white too?) mentality when it comes to voting rights. You would expect people on the Fediverse to understand what democracy and citizenship are a little better.