U.S. Expats: Now is the Time to Submit Your Overseas Absentee Ballot Request

by Julie R Butler

For those U.S. citizens living abroad who still believe in participating in their country’s representative democracy, now is the time to submit your Overseas Absentee Ballot Request. Although the Expat Diaspora does not enjoy any real representation as citizens of the United States, federal laws such as those governing taxation, communications, privacy, commerce, copyrights, and transportation, along with foreign policy, affect us all. A case can certainly be made that we should have some kind of official representation in Congress!

Even though we all know that voting machines are vulnerable to manipulation and election fraud occurs and even steals elections (as opposed to voter fraud, which is not very common and is not actually addressed by voter suppressing I.D. requirements), it's a bit like the lottery: if you don't vote, then your vote definitely won't count. If you do, then at least it's a crap shoot. 

New voting laws are in effect for the 2012 elections, requiring U.S. citizens who are planning to vote in any year’s primary and general elections from outside the country to complete and submit a Federal Post Card Application (FPCA) at the beginning of that year. All states are now required to send out ballots 45 days before an election, and local election officials will provide a blank ballot electronically via email, as a download, or by fax (depending on their systems). Registration and ballot delivery can also now be confirmed online. The FPCA will register you to vote and make an official request for an absentee ballot to be sent to you for all elections for federal officials, which includes presidential and state primaries, run-offs, special elections, and the November general elections.

The Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) has ensured that voting in the 2012 primary and general elections is easy and secure for U.S. citizens who would like to remain engaged in the process from outside the country. Of course, the Florida primaries have already occurred, and the February 1st deadline for requesting a ballot for the Missouri primaries on February 7 was yesterday, so I apologize to anyone who would have been able to participate in those but was not informed about how to do so. The next primaries are in Wisconsin on February 21, followed by Arizona and Michigan on February 28, etc. etc. If your party selects its presidential nominees via caucuses in the state where you are registered, then you probably will not be able to participate, although you could contact your state party officials to find out if yours is one of the few exceptions, if you feel motivated.

FVAP has a very user-friendly website that will walk you through all the steps, answering any questions along the way: http://www.fvap.gov/

The home page offers two choices, for either uniformed service members along with their families or for citizens living abroad for work, school, or other reasons. For expats who have no intention of returning to the United States and have no permanent address there, the next step of identifying the state you will be applying to is based on the requirement that you register for your absentee ballot using the last address where you were registered at, regardless of whether or not you continue to have any connections to that location or have some other address that you use for banking and other purposes. Choosing the option, “Register to Vote and/or Request Ballot” will take you to FVAP’s automated assistant to complete and print your registration/ballot request form. The instructions are explicit, and the result is that you will be able to download a PDF with all the voting information you need, the filled-out form, and even the prepaid label to be print onto an envelope.

All that is left is to sign the form and in many states, you can scan the document to email to your Local Election Official, although you may also be required to send the original. Of course, more postage will be needed to get the thing from wherever you are overseas to your Local Election Official. If you are near a U.S. Embassy, a consulate, or a consular agency, you can take your forms as well as your ballots there, and they will send them to the United States, sparing you the overseas postage. Be sure to allow plenty of time (at least two weeks for an embassy and three for a consular agency) for it to wind its way through their postal system.

Each state and territory has its own rules, so options and deadlines will vary. Even for those states that do not have early primaries, it is suggested that you submit the FPCA early in the calendar year, so that election officials who need to approve your application will have time to contact you, in case of any questions or problems that may need resolving.

[image via Wikipedia]

Julie R Butler is a traveler, blogger, freelance writer, editor, and author of several books that she self-published as eBooks, including Nine Months In Uruguay. See Julie more of Julie's writing at her recently revived blog, Connectively Speaking.

See more expat articles at Expat Daily News Latin America