This subject was brought up in another thread and I want to delve into it as it is someting that I honestly do not understand.
Basically, anyone who is a citizen is allowed to vote. This means of course those who left Italy to live elsewhere can vote but this I have less of a problem with since they understand the language, the system and probably watch TV and read Italian papers so they know all of the BS that goes on.
My problem is for those who have citizenship due to a bloodline or marriage and have never lived in Italy, may not speak the language, don't understand the politics and the system, etc. Why can they vote for the future of those who live here. How come they can decide (remember the last election was basically won by the AIRE votes) how life in Italy should be and who should run it.
I am not a citizen. I have the right through blood, marriage and/or residency but due to the fact that my name is different on my BC and passport (and every documemnt in Italy) it became too much of a hassle so since I have a never ending PdiS, I figure what would it change and dropped the application. So, the only thing I can't do is vote. But I live here, I pay taxes here, I understand the political system (no small feat) and and I have to watch all of the crazy politicians on a daily basis but I do not get to decide who governs this country but someone who had a great grandfather who never was naturalized in another country gets to vote? Does that make sense?
Oh and don't get me started on the fact that all citizens are covered by the NHS here, even if they never lived here or paid into the system. My taxes pay for them to move over and have full medical care!!!! And yes, there are many older people here in Italy who grew up in other countries but moved over after retirement because medical expenses were basically covered and the meds are cheaper.
BTW, my feelings on this are not because I cannot get citizenship easily, they are 100% in line with what every Italian I know thinks.
Cristina
I agree Cristina! What I would like to know is whether Italian citizens living abroad can vote for life? I used to be able to vote in UK elections but that ceases to be the case if you haven't been resident there for over (I think) 12 years. I would like to see the right to vote tied to residency both so those who have not lived in Italy for years cannot vote and those who are not citizens but ARE resident here (and have been for x years) can.
I agree with you. I always feel silly voting in US elections since I do not live there and have not been there for 7+ years! I shouldn't decide for others.
Cristina
Well, it is not a problem unique to Italy. I have a German and Spanish friend who have lived in the USA for more than 30 years. They both have green cards and have been employed here since they moved over. As they have retained their European citizenship, they are not permitted to vote.
While our health insurance is structured differently, we all contribute in the form of high insurance premiums for those who have no health insurance and there are many that do not.
Cristina, I was under the impression that you were married to an Italian. Can't you get citizenship through that route or the fact that you have lived in italy for more than 5 years?
No, that's not it. U.S. citizens can vote in U.S. elections. Possession of another citizenship is immaterial. If they naturalized as U.S. citizens, they could vote.
I can correct some other misassumptions. AIRE-registered Italian citizens living outside Italy are able to vote in Italian elections. There is no requirement to reside in Italy to be eligible to vote. Indeed, there's no requirement to have even set foot in Italy: all AIRE-registered adult Italian citizens are eligible.
Those AIRE-registered Italians vote to choose the deputies and senators who will represent them in Parliament from overseas districts, not from districts in Italy. There are four overseas districts: North/Central America, South America, Europe (ex-Italy), and Africa/Asia/Oceania/Antarctica. This system was only recently introduced -- the first general election with the new overseas districts was in 2006. In prior general elections Italians living overseas had the option to physically return to Italy to vote, but as you might expect that wasn't a popular option. (That option is still available, but you have to "opt out" of postal balloting fairly well in advance of each election. Then you have to physically travel to Italy to vote.)
When designing this overseas voting regime, the Italian government had a big political concern that the large numbers of Italians living overseas could be too powerful a force. So the government allocated a very small number of deputies and senators to the overseas districts. That means the vote of an Italian living overseas is approximately one third as powerful as the vote of an Italian living in Italy. Said another way, Italians living overseas can vote, and they have representation in Parliament, but only one third as much representation per capita as Italians living in Italy. Their votes are significantly diluted.
If you think a country's citizens living abroad should have significantly less democratic representation than citizens living within the country's borders, then you should like Italy's voting system. On the other hand, if you think "one citizen, one vote" should be the standard, or if you think citizens living overseas should have zero democratic representation, then you shouldn't like Italy's system.
I could have gotten citizenship via jure sanguinis, marriage or residency. I am totally able to, it is justy that since my birth certificate has my name one way and all my docs here and my passport have my name in a different way (first name is middle and middle is first) I would have to change something.  
on't want to change the docs in Italy since it would mean changing birth certs for my daughters as well as our mortgage, etc. and doing it in the states means I have to go there to do it. So I will just live here with my PdiS.
Cristina
I didn't explain myself clearly BBC. My friends have not naturalized, thus are not US citizens. I was simply trying to compare their situation to Cristina and C in Bo's and show that those in the US who are resident but not citizens are in a similar situation to those residents in Italy who are not Italian citizens.
We are registered in A.I.R.E. and are in the process of researching whom we will be voting for. The information you provided about our vote being worth less than those residing in Italy was very informative. We hadn't realized that. Thanks for clarifying.
Most countries connect citizenship with voting rights.
Interestingly you can vote in Italy even if you are not an Italian citizen in many cases. Specifically, citizens of EU countries can vote, although only in EU parliamentary elections and in Italian municipal elections (and maybe also in provincial elections, although I'm not sure about that). The U.S. has no analog to such non-citizen voting.
I would also like to underscore the word "about" when I wrote "about one third." That's an average, but it varies. For example, the Africa/Asia/Oceania/Antarctica district gets one deputy and one senator in Parliament. However, there are just shy of twice as many deputies as senators in Parliament. Thus that particular overseas district's voters have twice as much "power" in the Senate as they do in the Camera.
I should probably point out there's an extensive running discussion about the February, 2013, Italian general election here.
These numbers are a bit imprecise, but I can give you a better idea of the relative voting strength. There are about 60 million Italians in Italy and about 4.2 million overseas (as of year end 2011). That includes men, women, and children -- the number of adults is lower -- but this math is approximate and works well enough. The 4.2 million overseas Italians are represented by 6 senators and 12 deputies for a total of 18. Excluding the life senators (5 currently), there are 945 members of Parliament, 927 of which represent Italians living in Italy.
Thus there are about 64,725 Italians resident in Italy per representative from districts in Italy (combining the Camera and the Senate). The number of overseas Italians per representative is about 233,333. And actually, now that I've done the math, the average overseas Italian has only 27.8% as much representation in Parliament as the average Italian resident in Italy. It's closer to one quarter than one third, actually. (I first ran the calculation based on old population figures, so that probably explains the difference since there's been an increase in the number of overseas Italians in recent years.)
Thanks for that link BBC. My husband and I will review that today as well. Things must be really heating up as this week alone we have received 2 robo calls from the centro destra party as well as a flyer mailed to our house, asking for our vote. We haven't heard from any other parties and certainly wouldn't be voting for that one. In the past election we were eligible to vote in, we never heard a peep from anyone.
Ciao a tutti & Cristina; you were doing so well with the recipe for BBQ sauce and now you go and say that! I am living a dream here ( ExPts for those that dream...) returning to the land of 'mio parenti' after my GGF & GF came to America 100+ years ago. When I recieved my recognition of citizenship here in Umbria a year ago the most kind signora at the Comune was most encouraging that I would also be able to sign up for the voting card. About a month ago I got a letter in my casseta postale that called me down to the office to pick up my schema card; the parish hall is the voting location 50 meters from our door. I am very excited and proud to be Italian and with full rights to participate in this ( crazy circus) political process here. All my neighbors are happy about it too BTW and have been the most loving and supporting community in the world for my wife ( a Non Italian ) and myself. As far as the NHealth Care we have received THIS SAVED MY WIFES LIFE and we never have felt any discrimination only genuine loving care during the past four months of cancer surgery and treatment. Don't get me started either maybe you should stick to recipes...how about some of your Toll House cookies ? OK thats not nice I'm just poking some fun. Really you could get your passport ammended to indicate you are Also Know As the other name and try to run that through - it worked for us to get my wife started on her citizenship by marriage process, she had a one letter discrepancy in her middle name. I salute you for your contribution to the NHS and to this Board and I hope we can all continue to be welcoming and supportive of others experiencing the romance of this Italian dream.
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