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Sarah Shackelton, an American businesswoman who has lived in London for 10 years, seems like a good citizen. She has a master's degree in public administration and used to work for the U.S. Federal Government as a trade negotiator. But during the U.S. presidential election four years ago, as overseas votes trickled in and officials pored over hanging chads in Florida, Shackelton realized she had shirked the most fundamental civic duty: casting a ballot. "I felt embarrassed and irresponsible," she confesses. This time Shackelton, who supports Democratic nominee Senator John Kerry, registered for an absentee ballot and spent a night last week watching her candidate debate President George W. Bush on a giant TV screen in a packed lecture hall in London.

Shackelton is far from alone in her renewed determination to vote in next month's election. With polls showing Bush and Kerry in a dead heat, Democrat and Republican groups report an explosion of expat enthusiasm for casting a ballot. Democrats Abroad U.K. registered 14,000 voters in Britain this year, double the figure of four years ago. "There has definitely been more [overseas] interest than ever before in my experience," says Nancy Galen Haydel, chairman of Republicans Abroad in Italy. Interest has surged because of "the thing that happened in Florida," says Major Mark Kerr, who, as a voting coordinator for the U.S. Air Force in Mildenhall, England, helped sign up 500 airmen and their dependents in a single week in September. Bush won that state in 2000 by just 537 votes. Now, Americans abroad — and Republican and Democratic campaigners back in the U.S. — realize the impact the expat vote could have. "There's a lot riding on [the overseas vote]," says Robert Worcester, chairman of the MORI polling firm in London. Expats "could have swung Florida." Can they help swing next month's result?

Until 1975, not all expat Americans were even allowed to vote. Today, the Federal Voting Assistance Program run by the Pentagon estimates that 6 million Americans live abroad (roughly half of whom are eligible to vote), making the expat community equivalent in population to the state of Washington, the 15th-largest in the country. To court this constituency, Democrats and Republicans have long advertised in overseas English-language newspapers in election years, but this time they also sent a stream of prominent supporters to campaign abroad. Kerry's sister, Diana, chairman of Americans Overseas for Kerry, swung through six European cities last month to shore up support. Bush adviser Karl Rove, the President's aunt, Nancy Bush Ellis, and former Vice President Dan Quayle have all hit the European trail as part of the re-election campaign. No group is too small to court. Four congressional candidates phoned in to a recent fund-raising dinner attended by 60 Democrats at Joe Allen's, an American restaurant in Paris.

Voting registrars for the parties have also fielded queries from expats who want to know whether they can vote in crucial swing states, where they may have previous ties. Abigail Altman, a Democrat and co-owner of the Red Wheelbarrow Bookstore on Paris' Right Bank, was able to sign up to vote in Florida where she used to live and her mother still resides, even though her last U.S. address was in Massachusetts, Kerry's home state. "I can do more good in Florida instead of being just another Democratic vote in [solidly Democratic] Massachusetts," she says.

Although American expats care about the same issues — Iraq, terrorism, the economy — as their fellow voters back home, many are naturally also concerned about the rising tide of anti-Americanism that's swept Europe. "Bush has messed up foreign alliances," says Yolanda Bernardini, chairman of Democrats Abroad in Rome. But others credit Bush for his response to terrorism. "Considering the situation in the world, I think Bush is the better candidate," says Stuart Schnee, a Jerusalem-based marketing executive from New York who has never before voted Republican. "He's proved over the last four years that he and his team are willing to stand up for the Western way of life."

Traditional voting blocs are up for grabs abroad. According to pollsters, the 470,000 military personnel overseas tend to vote Republican. But soldiers in Wiesbaden, Germany, from the U.S. Army's First Armored Division that served in Iraq, may not be leaning heavily toward Bush. Loading groceries into her car, Specialist Kathleen Randolph recounts a long year in Iraq that ended in February and declares she has "no faith" in Bush. She is tilting toward selecting Kerry when she returns her ballot. Whatever the outcome, at least she'll have done her duty.

• ANDREA GERLIN | London
• Why U.S. expats are voting in record numbers