About 9,000,000 US citizens live outside the USA. Are you one, or do you know some?
If you’ll be at least 18 on election day you’re entitled to register and vote in the USA, even if you’ve never lived there and never voted before. I’m an expat myself, and you can bet I vote. I’ve voted in every election since I was old enough.
Below is a note along that line that I recently sent to my US citizen friends and family living abroad. If this raises any questions for you, pipe up and I’ll do my best to answer them.
But I’ll face one up front: some US expats choose not to vote because they have unreported income or bank accounts where they live — not even for criminal reasons — and they’re worried that if they register to vote, that will cause them problems in their US taxes. But that fear is unfounded: the two aren’t connected. (I ought to know, but please don’t ask me how I know.) So VOTE!
Here’s the note. It’ll tell you what to do to register and vote from abroad.
Subject: A stab in the heart of cynical disengagement
Dear family and friends —
Perhaps I've written you something like this before, but even in case I did…
Against certain catalysts of despair there's little we can do: the death of someone close; persistent health troubles or money troubles; the psychopathic selfishness of the powerful wealthy; even a flat tire at a bad moment.
But for some we can do something that, in its way, relieves our hearts.
You live outside the USA, but as an American citizen you can vote in the USA, even if you've never lived there and have never voted before. The first step is to register to vote and to request a ballot — which by US law you have to do every year. (Heaves a long sigh.) Here's how.
- Make sure you have on hand the last address where you lived in the USA; or if you never did, the last address where your US parent did. That will be the address you use.
- Go to https://votefromabroad.org/ and complete the form there, which will create exactly the document you need.
- When you've completed it, the website will e-mail it for you to the correct local election official, or if you prefer, you can print it to sign and mail yourself. (Certain states require postal mail, and the site knows which ones.)
You're done with registering to vote and requesting ballots for 2022.
THIS IS ABSOLUTELY INDEPENDENT OF YOUR POLITICAL CONVICTIONS. ANYONE CAN USE VOTEFROMABROAD.
- However, and optional: before you're done you'll be invited to click a box to sign up with Democrats Abroad [more info about DA in Wikipedia]. If you're not positively against this, click the box. Then Democrats Abroad can send you mail to notify you well beforehand of deadlines and elections where you can vote. You'll also get mail that may not interest you — like requests to donate and stuff about political activities — all of which you can cancel generally, but I find it bearable in context and I appreciate the information. You'd be welcome in DA. Especially as a volunteer.
Personally, I do donate, and since I do work for Democrats Abroad, I know about the support activities that have to be paid for entirely through donations. Any amount is welcome. There's no organization that can match DA in organizing and supporting the right to vote for US citizens overseas. [Added here: there’s no corresponding Republican organization, but there is a — guess what! — profit-making business that targets Republican expats and does nothing to help them vote.]
- Tell your US friends and associates. Forward them this note if you like.
If there's any way I can help you with this, contact me. If I happen to be on the phone with God when you do, I'll hang up on God to help you.
It would also be cool, if you do use votefromabroad.org, if you'd drop a note to say so. That might lighten for me one of my own catalysts of despair.