Oregon Public Broadcasting

It's election season. Wonder why you haven’t heard about it yet?  Because the elections are in Germany.

And while Germans followed the U.S. elections last year – the German elections hardly make headlines here.

Nevertheless: By some estimates about 200,000 Germans living in the U.S. are eligible to vote on September 27th.

OPB-reporter Barbara Leidl met two of them in Portland.

Jochen Eckhold typing: “Three ‘w’ bundeswahlleiter dot de... service for Germans living abroad....”

Jochen Eckhold is sitting in front of his computer – trying to find the documents he needs to register to vote in  the German election at the end of September.

Jochen Eckhold: "My name, date of birth, where I’m from, where I last lived in Germany, when I left Germany....”

Altogether there are four pages.

Jochen Eckhold: "Looks like I just need to print it, sign it and send it to Germany."

The deadline for Germans living overseas to register is September 6th.

The two main candidates running for chancellor are incumbent Angela Merkel and the current foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Election day in Germany is September 27th.

This is the second time that 39-year-old Eckhold, from Giessen, has voted from abroad. He came to Portland to work in the Human Resources department of Adidas. 

How does he find out what's going on in German politics? Certainly not by watching American TV.

Jochen Eckhold: "I get my information online. I read German and American media, couple of blogs and I actually download German TV news on my pc, so I think, I’m equally well informed."

The internet is also a great source for Cornelia Gibson from Idaroberstein, who has been living in the U.S. since 1971. Back then – it wasn’t so easy to stay informed about home.

Cornelia Gibson: "When I arrived here, I lived in Tacoma, Washington, it was difficult to get any kind of news. Newspapers were typically sent to New York then on to Seattle and by the time we received them, they were at least five days old”

So she has never voted in her entire life. Even though the internet has given her better access to news from Germany, it’s still an effort to keep up with German affairs, she says.

Cornelia Gibson: "You’re not exposed to information – you have to have an interest and dig for a particular segment."

An unscientific survey of American media coverage of the German election reveals a smattering of information about some of the more sensationalist stories coming out of the campaign: stories about Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cleavage on an election campaign poster, or about comedian Hape Kerkeling, who’s running as a mock-candidate named “Horst Schlaemmer”.

Cornelia Gibson: "I don’t think I heard anything about the German elections”

But there are more serious issues confronting German voters, that might be of interest to Americans: including health care reform in Germany, the future of the car industry and Germany’s position concerning its military and humanitarian efforts in Afghanistan.

Eckhold says he has met other Germans living in the U.S. who aren't interested in what's going on at home. For him, though, there’s no question about participating in the election.

Jochen Eckhold: "I was raised that way, and  the right to elect, thevotes that we have are precious."

And for the first time in 38 years Cornelia Gibson has also decided to become involved.

Cornelia Gibson: "Because I feel very connected to Germany still. It’s my home country and I really didn’t come to America because I wanted to get away from Germany, I came because I got married and was in love, so here we are and I’ve always missed home."

So her registration documents are on their way to her former-hometown.

Jochen Eckhold has already received his absentee ballot and voted. He’s one of 5000 Germans expected to vote from the U.S.