As an expat Brit for more than three decades, one thing had always irritated me. Why could I not vote in the U.K. elections? Why was this not a default right for all citizens? I kept asking.
To me, the 15-year time limit on voting for British citizens living abroad seemed unquestionably undemocratic, and completely out of step with the policy of all of the U.K.’s major allies. One argument went like this: Why should citizens who have chosen to live abroad and mostly do not pay taxes deserve to have any input in how their country is governed?
But watching and reporting on Americans and Canadians — many of whom had been living in Mexico far longer than I — casting their votes with relative ease was especially frustrating.
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