Eligible voters living in Windsor could decide the U.S. election: experts

It’s an electrifying two weeks for watchers of the U.S. presidential race – especially for the thousands of Windsor residents eligible to vote stateside in November.

According to former U.S. Ambassador to Canada, Bruce Heyman, these expatriates and dual citizens could end up casting the deciding ballots.

“There are tens of thousands right there in Windsor alone and I think could make the difference,” Heyman emphasized.

Canada is home to the largest number of Americans living outside the United States -- followed by Mexico.

Heyman pointed out that the number of Americans living in Windsor alone was enough to cost the Democrats the crucial swing state of Michigan in 2016.

“Hillary Clinton lost Michigan by less than 11,000 votes. I believe there were at least 11,000 Americans sitting just across the border who probably didn't get a chance to vote or didn't know they could vote. And if they did, they didn't know how,” he explained.

He said he leveraged that knowledge four years later to help turn the state from red to blue.

“I went to work quickly on the Biden campaign in 2020 to get Americans living in Canada, particularly Windsor, to get out and vote,” Heyman said.

“And we turned this thing around. Joe won Michigan by more than 150,000 votes, and it turned out that Americans living abroad were the margin that won Georgia and Arizona.”

As the clock ticks toward Nov. 5, Democratic analyst Marj Halperin said strategists are keenly focused on these eligible voters.

“Every vote truly counts in this election,” she noted.

Both she and Heyman predict Windsorites will see a surge of advertising in the Canadian city encouraging eligible American voters to register.

Halperin also mentioned that these voters could expect to receive calls from campaigns, pollsters, and non-profit phone banks over the next few months.

“A few thousand votes are going to swing this election,” she stated.

“That's why those voting as expats from other countries may well have an influential say in this race.”

Windsorite Daniel Ableser, a dual citizen, described the past two weeks of the race as a wild ride.

“Every election is fascinating but certainly this has been a really interesting campaign,” he observed.

However, Ableser said that Biden dropping out had not swayed his vote – and he doubted many others would be influenced either.

“I think that if anything, what Biden dropping out does is it returns the election to a referendum on Donald Trump,” said Ableser.

“And I think people pretty much have their minds made up on Donald Trump.”