How Can Overseas Voting Affect Our 2024 Election?

I have written several postings related to Various topics involving elections and voting in America. A list of links have been provided at bottom of this article for your convenience. This article will, how ever address additional issues in these topics.

Top 10 Misconceptions about Voting in U.S. Elections from Abroad

Too often, U.S. citizens abroad don’t vote because they have one issue or question that is standing between them and the simple act of requesting their overseas absentee ballot.

First-time voting for U.S. citizens who live temporarily or permanently abroad is not well understood. It can seem daunting for those who haven’t previously taken advantage of their overseas voting rights and lack details about how it works. Couple that with the natural human habit of filling in gaps of knowledge with assumptions, we can end up with ideas that amount to nothing short of imagined barriers to overseas voting.

The assumptions made about the rules of overseas voting are so often just plain wrong. We call them “Overseas Voting Myths.” They are myths and misconceptions that are actually fabricated barriers to voting.

At Overseas Vote and our parent, U.S. Vote Foundation, our legacy is overseas and military voting. We often remark on this tendency of voters to use these misconceptions to keep themselves from voting. Overseas voting is challenging enough without creating even more imaginary problems! But we know, this tendency simply reflects the missing knowledge that voters need. We are here to help!

It’s time to set the record straight. Read on to fill in the gaps and correct false assumptions with facts!

Myth 1: As a U.S. citizen living abroad, I can’t vote.

Not True!

Here’s the Truth: You can (and should!) vote. As a U.S. citizen living abroad, you have a right to vote in federal elections (choosing the U.S. President and Members of the U.S. Congress). If you are temporarily abroad, you may also vote in state elections (depending on the state, choosing your state’s Governor, Lieutenant Governor, General Assembly, Attorney General, Auditor General, and State Treasurer).

You maintain your voting rights even if you are overseas temporarily during the elections. For instance, you can request your overseas ballot if you’re studying abroad or working on a work assignment. Furthermore, as an active member of the military stationed abroad, you and your accompanying family have a right to vote! So, if you’re a U.S. citizen and you will be 18 years or older on Election Day, register and request your overseas ballot TODAY!

Myth 2: I can’t vote from overseas as a first-time voter.

FALSE!

Get the Truth: As a U.S. citizen living abroad, it doesn’t matter whether you are a first-time voter or not, you can participate. You may be 19 or 95 years old and never have voted in domestically or abroad, but you can still register and request your ballot for the first time as an overseas voter. There is no limitation. [Learn More]

If you have never lived in the U.S. because you were born abroad and have acquired your citizenship by birth (through your parent(s) who is a U.S. citizen(s)), you can (and should) register, if your state allows it as most of them do. Use your parent(s)’ address to register to vote in the federal elections.

Myth 3: I must live abroad permanently to vote from abroad.

Not True!

What is True: If you’re living abroad temporarily (studying abroad, traveling, working, etc), you can vote. Just register and request your overseas ballot and indicate your temporary address. You can choose to have your ballot mailed to you or to receive it online. It’s that easy. Once you’re back in the United States, you can re-register to change your status back to that of a domestic voter. [Learn More]

Myth 4: I must own property or have a current mailing address in the U.S.A.

Nope!

The Truth: As a U.S. citizen living abroad, there is absolutely no requirement to own property or maintain a permanent residence or mailing address in the U.S. If you are voting from abroad, no mail will be sent to a U.S. address. [Learn More]

Myth 5: If I vote abroad, the IRS will contact me.

FALSE!

Here’s the Truth: The federal program to register to vote and request your ballot from abroad allows you to vote for federal offices – U.S. President, Vice President, U.S. Senate and House of Representatives without concern about tax implications. Please see more on our FAQ about “Will Voting from Abroad Affect my Tax Status.”

Myth 6: I can ask my friend or a relative to mail my overseas voting ballot from the U.S.

No!

Get the Truth: Mailing an overseas ballot from U.S. soil will invalidate it. Completed overseas absentee ballots should be returned to your election office from the country where you live as an overseas voter. Giving your ballot to your friend or a relative who travels to the United States to mail the ballot from there will likely end up in it not being counted. [Learn more]

Myth 7: I have to notarize my voting ballot when I vote from overseas.

False!

The Truth: No state has a requirement that you must notarize your voted ballot prior to returning it. The Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act of 2009 mandated that no state can require you to notarize your overseas absentee ballot. [Learn More]

Myth 8: I can choose a state where I vote.

Not True!

(Oh Dear… )You Need the Truth: As a U.S. citizen voting from overseas, you can’t choose a state where you’ll vote while abroad. The state where you’ll vote is the state of your last residence in the United States. It should be the address of where you truly last lived and intended to make a home, not a temporary stay for a visit on your way overseas. Your voting residence is not the address of a friend or relative, nor is it a mailing address, unless that is also where you last truly lived and made a home and where you moved from when you left the country. Put plainly, the state you lived in before you moved, is the state you will vote in while you’re abroad. [Learn More]

Myth 9: My overseas vote will not be counted.

FALSE!

Here is the Truth: You might be confused on this point because election results are often announced before the official ballot count is final. There is a mathematical reason for that. [Learn More] All ballots must be counted, and accounted for, in order for the election results to be officially certified. Overseas and military ballots are no exception to this. It is the law. Every vote counts, no matter where it comes from, domestic or abroad.

Myth 10: My vote from overseas doesn’t make a difference.

Don’t Buy That!

The Truth: Every vote counts, and in tight races, your vote has more weight. In the 2020 Presidential election, the state of Georgia was decided with just 11,779 votes. Four million nine hundred thirty-five thousand four hundred eighty-seven votes were cast in Georgia. The margin represented a mere 0.3% difference between the candidates. Furthermore, in Arizona, 11 electoral votes were awarded the winner by just 10,457 votes.

Every vote not cast is lost, which gives every vote cast more weight. Every vote cast from overseas is counted and makes a difference in a tight race. It might even decide a race.

Voting from overseas might be confusing and challenging, but we’re here to help you. U.S. Vote Foundation and our Overseas Vote initiative are is nonpartisan, nonprofit public charity focused on helping U.S. citizens to exercise their voting rights. We look forward to working with you to exercise your overseas voting opportunity with ease and joy.

Overseas Voting Today

Americans living overseas rarely vote, with just 7.8 per cent participating in the 2020 election.

And US politicians rarely pay them any attention, even though there were roughly 4.4 million of them in 2022.

But in an election looking to be incredibly tight, things are a little different.

US Vote Foundation CEO Susan Dzieduszycka has spent two decades helping overseas citizens vote and this election has brought an unprecedented level of attention.

“The overseas vote this year is coming under a level of scrutiny that we’ve never had before,” she said.

“There’s been some gaslighting already where there’s going to be this claim that non-citizens are voting from overseas.

“But I believe this will stand up to scrutiny.”

Fraud ‘fantasies’ and lengthy lawsuits

The sudden interest in international voting has been fuelled, in part, by former president Donald Trump, who last month claimed without evidence that anyone living overseas can get a ballot mailed to them, even if they are ineligible to vote.

At the same time, the Democrats are ramping up efforts to secure international support, with the party investing almost $US500,000 in the Democrats Abroad advocacy group.

Ms Dzieduszycka said the “fantasies of voter fraud” were “completely unfounded”.

“The ballot request system complies with the same rigorous security checks and verification as US domestic processes, including voter identification verification and signature matching,” she said.

“Election officials give more scrutiny, not less, to overseas applications.”

Meanwhile, absentee voting rights enshrined in the 1986 Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act are being challenged in the courts.

The Republican National Committee launched a lawsuit in North Carolina this week, arguing the act undermines the state’s own residency requirements, allowing people who have never lived in North Carolina to vote.

That may include those born overseas to US parents, who gain citizenship by descent.

Ms Dzieduszycka said while these types of lawsuits delay vote counting, she “welcomes any scrutiny”.

‘It’s my one chance to voice my opinions’

While the whims and woes of US politics may be thousands of kilometres away, the election could have real and lasting impacts on expats like Trent Jackson.

For the past eight years, he has lived in Taiwan, an island that China has long wanted to reclaim and which many pundits fear could spark the next global conflict.

“From both political parties, there’s always been strong support for Taiwan,” Mr Jackson said.

“But it is worrying when sometimes, maybe Trump will say Taiwan is stealing semiconductors from the US or that Taiwan is a bargaining chip with China.

“We want Taiwan to be protected. We want democracy to flourish here.”

Participating in the democratic process is relatively easy for Mr Jackson; he has watched all the election debates on YouTube and can vote via email under the laws of his home state, Washington.

And he would oppose any attempt to curtail his voting rights.

“It’s my right and duty as a citizen to vote,” he said.

“I can’t vote at all in Taiwan, so it’s my one chance to voice my opinions, my political opinions.”

So where are all the US expats living?

The overseas voting act protects the rights of US citizens living, working or studying abroad, along with military service personnel and their families.

The expat community has grown 42 per cent since 2010, with the top destination being Canada, with about 606,000 adult citizens, followed by the United Kingdom with just under 300,000.

In the Asia Pacific, Australia has the fifth most US adults at nearly 111,000, followed by Japan at 101,000, and Taiwan in 10th place at about 57,000.

The low turnout of these millions of voters may be due to the difficulty in registering, according to political science adjunct professor at Tokyo’s Temple University, Paul Nadeau.

“It’s already a little bit more complicated in America to vote than it is in a lot of other places,” he said.

“And when you’re living abroad, the rules aren’t always clear and obvious. Some states have different rules and requirements for eligibility in terms of residency.”

The US Vote Foundation has tried to simplify the process and dispel myths with its Overseas Vote website, which provides information on how to vote in each state.

For his part, Professor Nadeau encourages all his students to register to vote, even though there may be better ways to get Americans to the polls.

“If there’s one innovation I wish we could take from the Australians, it’s democracy sausages,” he said.

“Make it into an event, make people turn up and get together.

“Go cast your ballot, grab a hot dog.”

But will expats actually have a big say in the election?

Professor Nadeau isn’t surprised by the high level of interest in the overseas vote this year given 2024 is a “big election”.

“It’s a very clear, very decisive choice between two very distinct candidates,” he said.

“That context has made a lot of people more engaged, more concerned, more plugged in than they would be otherwise.”

Ms Dzieduszycka said politicians were also “finally realising that there is an underused right to vote abroad”.

“Candidates are looking for votes under every rock they can find.”

But despite the high stakes in both the 2016 and 2020 elections, the turnout rate of overseas voters remained under 8 per cent compared to around two-thirds of those living at home.

Maurice Shelton has lived in Japan for more than a decade and while he has voted in the past, he believes local activism is more powerful than “electoral politics”.

“Because I’m a Black American, I have a peculiar view on how electoral politics can shape the outlook, whether it’s economic or social, of certain communities,” he said.

“Being on the outside looking in now, it’s giving me a little bit more clarity in terms of how little the presidential election matters for people who are rank and file, just regular workers.

“The Electoral College is very anti-democratic. We are ruled by a duopoly that has not taken the interest of the common worker and the common person in forever.

“There are so many other things that we could do to affect real change and cause actual progress for the betterment of everybody around the world.”

Overseas Voting

Fact: The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) ensures that U.S. troops and other citizens serving our country abroad can exercise their right to vote.

In 1986, President Ronald Reagan signed the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, giving military members and certain U.S. citizens living abroad the right to register to vote and cast an absentee ballot in federal elections. Without that law, troops serving our country, missionaries, aid workers, and other citizens living abroad could be disenfranchised.

There is a rigorous system of checks to ensure that only eligible U.S. citizens can vote from abroad. UOCAVA voters must meet the same identification and registration requirements as all other voters. Among other steps, they must provide a residential address in the United States, proper identification, and their signature to register.

UOCAVA voters cannot choose which state to vote in. They must vote in the last state where they were a resident. Because they are abroad, they face additional obstacles to voting. We should do everything we can to guarantee that they can vote, not bash the system that allows them to do so.

Rumor: Bad actors can use the UOCAVA program to illegally register people to vote.

Conspiracy theorists spreading lies about noncitizens illegally voting have targeted the long-standing program that enables military members, missionaries, aid workers, and other overseas citizens to vote. Some have falsely claimed that one party can sway the presidential election by sending ballots to noncitizens living abroad.

• • •

We worked with Swayable, a research software platform that measures how effectively media content changes opinions, to determine what messages helped voters best understand the facts.

Suggested counter-messages based on our testing:

U.S. troops and other citizens serving our country abroad have the right to vote.

Democratic voters overseas could help clinch the election in swing states

The organization that represents the Democratic Party overseas said that American voters abroad are going to be more important in this election than ever before.

JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

The bounce within the Democratic Party since Vice President Kamala Harris and Tim Walz became its nominees goes beyond United States borders. The organization that represents the Democratic Party overseas tells reporter Teri Schultz that American voters abroad are going to be more important in this election than ever before.

TERI SCHULTZ: France and Finland may never have been thought of as swing states in a U.S. election, but that could change this November if the millions of eligible U.S. voters living overseas become actual voters. Democratic activists say enthusiasm for the Harris-Walz ticket makes this an unprecedented possibility.

TANYA DOHONEY: We are an untapped potential.

SCHULTZ: At a cafe near her apartment in Paris, Tanya Dohoney hosts voter registration drives for overseas Americans, fewer than 8% of whom traditionally use their right to vote. Before Vice President Kamala Harris became the Democratic candidate, Dohoney was struggling to convince people to sign up.

DOHONEY: There were several of them that I had tried to talk them into voting, and they’re like, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t affect me. And every possible persuasive thing I said, they were like, maybe. Now they’re coming out of the woodwork, wanting to vote. They’re so happy.

SCHULTZ: This same surge was seen around the world in the days after President Joe Biden stepped down, according to Democrats Abroad, the party’s overseas organization. The group says voter registration numbers quintupled almost immediately, and membership in their organization tripled.

DANA FRELING: Oh, I see some people…

SCHULTZ: Texas native Dana Freling founded a Democrats Abroad chapter in Helsinki after Donald Trump took office in 2017. She says Harris’ choice of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate had positive repercussions all the way to Finland because he’d visited there in 2021 to sign an environmental agreement between his state and the Finnish government. She says now even Finns are asking her how they can get involved.

FRELING: They cannot give money. They cannot see our data. But they can go out and tell people about Vote From Abroad. They can help go get the vote out.

SCHULTZ: Democrats Abroad registers people from either political party. Republicans don’t have an official organization overseas. Mike Kulbickas often participates as a Republican in debates and public outreach events in Brussels. He says talk of Harris’ wide appeal is based on superficial factors that may not actually motivate people to vote.

MIKE KULBICKAS: I don’t think that there’s any particular excitement related to her as a candidate. I think the only thing that she benefits from is that she is a woman, that she’s a person of color.

SCHULTZ: But Dana Freling insists the turnout from Americans abroad could easily be the deciding factor in November. She says even the single-digit percentage of participation four years ago made the difference for Biden in crucial swing states.

FRELING: We were the margin of victory, with 20,000, or close to 20,000 votes in Georgia, in Arizona – in both of these states. In a state like Texas, we know that there could be up to half a million Texans along the Mexico border and in Central America – half a million.

SCHULTZ: The Democratic National Committee, the DNC, is doing that math this year. It’s calculated exactly how many Americans from each of seven battleground states are living overseas – a total of more than 1.6 million people.

Resources

abc.net.au, “Why overseas voters are getting so much attention in the 2024 US election.” By Lachlan Bennett; overseasvotefoundation.org, “Top 10 Misconceptions about Voting in U.S. Elections from Abroad.”; brennancenter.org, “Overseas Voting.”; npr.org, “Democratic voters overseas could help clinch the election in swing states.” By Teri Schultz;

Voting and Elections

Common Sense and Ramblings In America

How Can Overseas Voting Affect Our 2024 Election?

Myth 1: As a U.S. citizen living abroad, I can’t vote.

Myth 2: I can’t vote from overseas as a first-time voter.

Myth 3: I must live abroad permanently to vote from abroad.

Myth 4: I must own property or have a current mailing address in the U.S.A.

Myth 5: If I vote abroad, the IRS will contact me.

Myth 6: I can ask my friend or a relative to mail my overseas voting ballot from the U.S.

Myth 7: I have to notarize my voting ballot when I vote from overseas.

Myth 8: I can choose a state where I vote.

Myth 9: My overseas vote will not be counted.

Myth 10: My vote from overseas doesn’t make a difference.

Fraud ‘fantasies’ and lengthy lawsuits

‘It’s my one chance to voice my opinions’

So where are all the US expats living?

But will expats actually have a big say in the election?

Fact: The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) ensures that U.S. troops and other citizens serving our country abroad can exercise their right to vote.

Rumor: Bad actors can use the UOCAVA program to illegally register people to vote.

• • •

Like this:

Myth 1: As a U.S. citizen living abroad, I can’t vote.

Myth 2: I can’t vote from overseas as a first-time voter.

Myth 3: I must live abroad permanently to vote from abroad.

Myth 4: I must own property or have a current mailing address in the U.S.A.

Myth 5: If I vote abroad, the IRS will contact me.

Myth 6: I can ask my friend or a relative to mail my overseas voting ballot from the U.S.

Myth 7: I have to notarize my voting ballot when I vote from overseas.

Myth 8: I can choose a state where I vote.

Myth 9: My overseas vote will not be counted.

Myth 10: My vote from overseas doesn’t make a difference.

Fraud ‘fantasies’ and lengthy lawsuits

‘It’s my one chance to voice my opinions’

So where are all the US expats living?

But will expats actually have a big say in the election?

Fact: The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) ensures that U.S. troops and other citizens serving our country abroad can exercise their right to vote.

Rumor: Bad actors can use the UOCAVA program to illegally register people to vote.

• • •

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