About the Author: Jessica Levy Kania serves as U.S. Vice Consul in Mumbai, India.

Right in the middle of election season, I moved from Virginia to Mumbai, India, where I work at the U.S. Consulate. Even though, as an absentee voter without access to cable TV, I can watch the debates and read U.S. news online, I sometimes catch myself feeling more like an outside observer than an active participant in the political process — and I believe that many other U.S. citizens living overseas feel the same way.

That is one reason why I was so pleased to bring some U.S. campaign excitement to India by helping to stage a voting party for U.S. citizens. Mumbai’s American Citizen Services Unit transformed our consular waiting hall into a small piece of the United States abroad, with American classics playing on the speakers, popcorn from a theatre-style machine, and a red-white-and-blue balloon arch. Attendees dropped their absentee ballots in a giant, star-spangled… more »