In December 2019, the Hellenic Parliament, with an overwhelming majority of 288 out of 300 MPs, took a historic first step in bestowing Greek expats with the right to vote from abroad. With the new law, Greek citizens who are registered in the national voting rolls can vote from their country of residence, provided that they lived 2 of the last 35 years in Greece and have submitted a tax return in the current or previous tax year. Out of the 300 seats in the Greek Parliament, 3 seats will represent expat Greeks, and as such, each political parties must have at least one candidate in its ballot.

Approximately 500,000 Greeks, who emigrated primarily due to the financial crisis in the last 10-15 years to Europe and North America, now have the ability to register trough an application at www.apodimoi.gov.gr. The right to vote allows recent emigrants to determine, through their vote, the academic, research, social, and economic environment of Greece and therefore the terms and conditions of their possible return.

Although the Ministry of the Interior estimated that 300,000 Greeks abroad would be eligible to vote, it is currently estimated that less than 4,000 are have registered. (Here, note that in the 2019 European elections, registered voters from abroad - within Europe - were 15,000 while only 12,000 voted). The low number of registrations , can be at least partially be attributed to the fact that the qualifying criteria, not only exclude a large segment of the population, but also discourage people from registering due to the complexity of the process.

In the last three years of the pandemic crisis, the Greek state made leaps in digital governance. Many bureaucratic processes are digitized and can now happen at the push of a button. The state must take advantage of this digital dynamic in order to inform expatriate Greeks about the right to vote.

In this context, we propose ten actions. Seven of the ten are zero-cost, while the remaining three are low-budget measures that can make a huge difference in the final number of registered voters.

1. Sending an email about the registration process to any citizen who is registered as a foreign tax resident.

2. Connecting with all Greek student and academic organizations in Europe and North America so that students, researchers and professors can be informed via e-mail about the new process. (The preparation of a registry of Greek academics that was announced some time ago, would help the most, if completed, in this effort).

3. Sending information to the approximately 1,500 expatriate communities in North America as well as to the approximately 1,000 Greek communities in Europe, which can in turn forward it along to their members.

4. Using Church, which has the most extensive network of Greek Orthodox communities around the world and which keeps detailed records of local parishioners as a communication channel for voting information.

5. Compiling a list of all Greek schools in Europe and North America so that the students' parents can be informed via e-mail.

6. Requiring all employees of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs working in embassies and consular authorities to register to vote.

7. Requiring all the employees of the Ministry of Defense living and training in the allied countries, as well as the employees of the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs who are seconded to educational institutions abroad to register to vote.

8. Hiring short term staff, who can help people register to vote when they visit embassies and consulates.

9. Establishing a 24/7 expatriate service center that to trouble shout registration issues promptly and efficiently.

10. Running advertising campaign about the expat vote targeting the user's Internet address (IP) on all websites of Greek public organizations, banks, and not only journalistic organizations as was done in the past.

Facilitating the right to vote for Greek citizens living abroad is the beginning for the organic connection of the diaspora with the Greek state. This right, which is the result of a broad political consensus, must be guarded and deepened. The practical implementation of any new law does not occur immediately after its passing, especially when it takes time for citizens to be informed about its content.

Therefore, we propose that the Greek government take advantage of modern technological tools to inform expats about their rights, in order to achieve the full implementation of the law. We also encourage expat Greeks to submit an application at www.apodimoi.gov.gr to be able to vote in the next election from their place of residence.