BARCELONA, Spain -- As the 2004 U.S. presidential campaign steams into its final weeks, for expatriate Pennsylvanians and other Americans living abroad, it's time to start voting.

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Here in Spain, the Kerry campaign recently swept through and the Bush folks are planning final stops as overseas voter registration reaches record levels -- driven by the ease of global Internet campaigning, controversy over President Bush's foreign policies and the fact that only a few hundred votes in Florida decided the 2000 election.

Both parties have been working overtime to attract the expatriate vote, figuring that the deciding ballots in battleground states like Pennsylvania and Ohio might not be cast in Pittsburgh or Toledo, but in Barcelona, Baghdad or Bratislava.

"Every vote counts, and Americans living overseas proved the importance of their vote in 2000," said Cynthia Dillon, head of Spanish operations for Republicans Abroad International.

Jim Brenner, executive director of Americans Overseas for Kerry, agreed.

"If the election is close again this year, overseas absentee votes will again be a significant factor," he said. "Florida has a large population of both military and civilian overseas voters. But other so-called battleground states do, as well. It could determine the outcome if the machine count is within thousands of votes."

Nobody knows exactly how many Americans live outside the country, but the Foreign Voter Assistance Program, a Pentagon operation that facilitates voting by all Americans abroad, estimates more than 6 million are eligible to vote -- including 3.2 million private citizens, 2.7 million members of the Armed Forces and their dependents, and 200,000 employees of the State Department and other government agencies. Only 14 U.S. states have larger populations.

The battleground states with the largest numbers of overseas voters, according to a new analysis by Americans Overseas for Kerry, are Florida with 306,000, followed by Pennsylvania with 252,000, Washington with 198,000, Michigan with 192,000 and Ohio with 162,000. Florida swung the 2000 election to Bush by a margin of 537 votes.

Military families, who tend to lean Republican, and government employees have the best voting records among Americans living abroad. Almost 70 percent cast absentee ballots in 2000, compared to about half of the voting-age population living in the United States. Only 33 percent of civilians and other non-government Americans abroad typically vote.

For months now, both political parties have focused on getting this huge constituency to register, to request absentee ballots, and then to send completed ballots back to local election boards in time to be counted. The first votes will be cast this week, as Pennsylvania and some other states begin mailing absentee ballots today.

Overseas groups supporting Kerry and Bush are active in nearly 50 countries, and neither party has ignored the civilian and military personnel in what are literally battleground precincts. A Republican group called "Baghdadis For Bush," for instance, is trying to out-maneuver the Democrats' "Donkeys in the Desert."

Last week, Diana Kerry, 57, the Democratic candidate's multi-lingual sister, linked up with Brenner for appearances in Madrid and Barcelona, home to many of Spain's 200,000 American expatriates. Kerry, a schoolteacher who lived in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, spoke at the Journalists' Association of Catalonia in Barcelona and said she has been trying to "beat the Bushes" in her appearances abroad.

The Republicans have rolled out globe-trotting celebrities on behalf of the Bush tickets, including California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Vice President Dan Quayle, and George P. Bush, the Hispanic, Spanish-speaking son of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

Both parties have used Web sites and e-mail, along with traditional campaign tactics, to get out the vote. Two weeks before the Kerry visit here, for instance, Christian Suojanen, who chairs Democrats Abroad Spain, shotgunned e-mails to the organization's membership.

"All we ask is that you help spread the word," Suojanen said, urging members to distribute pamphlets and e-mails to American friends in Spain. "Remember, just because you are not in the U.S. does not mean you cannot help."

Fliers have been plastered around places Americans frequent, including Spanish language schools, universities, Internet cafes, expatriate clubs and even the English-language sections in book stores.

Republicans Abroad (www.republicansabroad.com) and Democrats Abroad (www.democratsabroad.org) have been active in voter registration efforts since passage of the 1975 Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Rights Act, which gave all citizens living outside the United States the right to vote in federal elections.

Pentagon policy prohibits partisan political activity at military facilities. But both parties are active near bases, and military personnel have access to political Web sites. The Defense Department does encourage service members to vote, and is trying to speed delivery of absentee ballots back to the states.

By all accounts, an unusually large number of Americans abroad have registered to vote this year. The voter assistance program handled 340,000 registration requests by early July -- 90,000 more than four years ago.

"I have personally registered people who have never voted since coming overseas," said Lucy Laederich, Paris-based U.S. liaison for the Federation of American Women's Clubs Overseas. "The other day it was one woman who has been here since 1951 and has never voted in her life."

Jeannie Wurz, a Democrat registered to vote in Illinois who has lived in Bern, Switzerland, since 1992, said many American expatriates plan to vote this year to register displeasure with President Bush's foreign policies, especially his decision to invade Iraq.

"Four years ago I sent for an absentee ballot but didn't vote because I was ambivalent about both candidates," she said. "This year I definitely will vote."

Webster noted similarly strong feelings among Republicans.

"The current political situation in the States has galvanized the overseas population as never before," she said. "We suddenly feel that it is imperative that we make our personal choice known, and that the outcome will truly affect us. I say this in a completely nonpartisan way. Both sides are vitally interested in making their voices heard."

Despite advances in technology that make obtaining absentee ballot applicatons easier, the overseas voting process nevertheless remains complicated and antiquated, with regulations differing from state to state and heavy reliance on paper ballots and regular mail. It is a source of continuing concern among voters abroad.

"I'm not sure that I believe our absentee ballots are counted in the election," said Wurz, "but this year I will definitely vote."