A few short months ago, November 2008 to be precise, a large group of American expats congregated in the ballroom of the Renaissance Hotel in Beijing. I remember it fondly. I arrived there early, early enough to watch the first election returns come in on CNN, and I waited around long enough for the major television networks to officially declare Barack Obama as the President-elect.

Not to take anything away from that experience, but part of the fun was predicated on the fact that we, as Americans living abroad, were nonetheless participants in the election process. Without that, it’s much more of a spectator sport than anything else.

Turns out, a lot of us were just spectators after all. This report (h/t Americablog) does not make me happy:

One out of every four ballots requested by military personnel and other Americans living overseas for the 2008 election may have gone uncounted, according to findings being released at a Senate hearing Wednesday.

Sen. Charles Schumer, chairman of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, said the study, while providing only a snapshot of voting patterns, “is enough to show that the balloting process for service members is clearly in need of an overhaul.”

The committee, working with the Congressional Research Service, surveyed election offices in seven states with high numbers of military personnel: California, Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington and West Virginia.

One final note on this. When/if the government actually decides to do something about this, don’t be surprised if they focus all their attention on military personnel serving abroad and completely ignore all other expats. Not to begrudge the rights of the US military in any way, but hey, the rest of us out here are people too.