Due to international migration, increasing numbers of eligible voters are abroad when their home countries hold elections. Employing the theory of voting costs and benefits and focussing on a case of Lithuania, this article presents an unprecedented qualitative enquiry into difficulties behind emigrant (non)voting. Besides real voting costs, interviews with Lithuanian emigrants reveal importance of perceived voting costs when one decides whether to vote—thereby also introducing to the field a novel theoretical framework for examining voting costs and benefits both in and beyond migration context. The paper demonstrates that in addition to implementing adequate provisions for external voting from the home country's side, it is crucial for the authorities to raise awareness of these accommodations—and of the associated conditions, such as registration terms and postal voting deadlines—in order to yield as high as possible participation levels among those emigrants who are willing to vote.

中文翻译：

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真实和感知的投票成本：立陶宛移民关于外部投票困难的论述

由于国际移民，越来越多的合格选民在本国举行选举时在国外。本文运用投票成本和收益理论，并以立陶宛为例，对移民（不）投票背后的困难进行了前所未有的定性调查。除了实际的投票成本，对立陶宛移民的采访揭示了感知的重要性决定是否投票时的投票成本——从而也为该领域引入了一个新的理论框架，用于检查移民背景内外的投票成本和收益。该文件表明，除了对本国的外部投票实施适当的规定外，当局还必须提高对这些便利以及相关条件（例如注册条款和邮寄投票截止日期）的认识，以便在愿意投票的移民中产生尽可能高的参与水平。