JERUSALEM — Americans living in Israel went to the polls this week, dropping sealed envelopes into improvised ballot boxes at community centers in this city and at other locations around the country. Instead of a unifying experience, though, participating in the November presidential elections from afar seemed to accentuate the distance between the American Jewish voters here and those back in the United States.

An American Jewish Committee Survey conducted in early September showed nearly two-thirds of Jewish voters were supporting President Obama, in line with support in past elections. According to exit polls since 1992, about three-quarters of Jewish Americans have supported the Democratic presidential candidate.

Historically, the vote from Israel has hardly counted. The number of eligible American voters here is now estimated at about 160,000. In 2008, about 30,000 cast absentee ballots. Many here said the process of registering and voting was just too complicated.

But this time as many as 75,000 Americans in Israel have registered for a ballot, spurred on perhaps by the critical issues on the American-Israeli agenda but also by the efforts of iVoteIsrael, a get-out-the-vote group that says it is nonpartisan but that critics accuse of working quietly for the Republicans.