In a presidential race as close as this one, every vote counts, including the absentee ballots of Americans abroad.
At least 55,000 American citizens who live in Ireland are eligible to vote in next Tuesday's election, according to the US embassy in Dublin, and for the past three months all have been urged by Democratic and Republican groups to register by post, in their state of last residence, and to use the absentee ballot system.
"Your Vote - Your Country" was the slogan written on the sheet of instructions from the New York State Board of Elections accompanying my postal ballot papers, which arrived recently. I voted for Al Gore for President and Hillary Clinton for United States Senator and happily placed the ballot in the post to Manhattan. My vote - my country.
Rules vary widely from state to state and a straw poll revealed that several voters here - including Irish-born dual citizens - were confused about voter registration and absentee voting. Others said the US embassy's telephone answering machine message had been unclear and more funding and staff were needed in Dublin to answer queries.
For the first time, with such a sizeable number of Irish votes at stake, Democrats Abroad and Republicans Abroad, which are voluntary groups, organised registration drives around Ireland. The Democrats targeted Kilkenny, Dun Laoghaire, Letterkenny, Galway, Belfast and Carrick-on-Shannon. The Republicans went to Waterford, Cork, Galway, Dundalk, Monaghan and Limerick. They registered everyone they could, regardless of party affiliation. Voter registration must be non-partisan, by law.
"It sounds corny to a lot of people but being able to choose our leaders is important," said Mr John Hmurovic of Democrats Abroad, which has more than 100 members in Ireland. A television news director, he sent his ballot to Indiana - not surprisingly, he voted for Gore.
When asked the big question of the campaign - why the contest was so close when Mr Gore clearly was more qualified than Governor Bush - Mr Hmurovic said it was a battle of "personality versus competence".
Mr James Young, an economist and property analyst who is head of Republicans Abroad, said people seemed to want someone you could have over for "a barbecue rib and a beer", an impulse he found "peculiar to Americans".
Ms Liv Gibbons, a Californian who is chairwoman of Democrats Abroad, countered: "We're dismayed that so many people are voting on a superficial issue such as likeability. No one gets near the President anyway." Ms Joan Dalton, who has been away from New Jersey for 20 years and who voted for Gore, expressed dismay also that "dignity, intelligence and the general ability to govern do not seem to count". She said: "Gore, growing up in the public eye as the child of a senator, learned to protect his privacy and that's where his diffidence comes from. This is why he's not Miss America." She continued: "There's a Big Brother aspect to it - the most entertaining guy gets to stay in the Big House."
Asked how many Republicans live in Ireland, Mr Young said: "Not that many, but there are more here than there ever were." His group has 27 members, seven of whom live in west Cork, including two businessmen who commute to London and New York. Why the nest of Republicans in west Cork? "I have no earthly idea," he replied.
Traditionally the Democratic Party has had a stronger presence in Ireland but Mr Young, a Texan, is determined to root out all Bush supporters before election day and, armed with a batch of emergency federal write-in absentee ballots, he said, "I'm gonna go find Republicans."