Voting Abroad

Yes, in order to be assured that your vote will count. The recent MOVE Act requires all overseas voters to request their ballot each election year. And that includes you even if you’ve already received a ballot from your election official.

Voting in US Federal elections does not affect the determination of tax liability or tax residence. You will not hear from the IRS because you voted in a Federal election, i.e. President, Senate, or House of Representatives. But note that voting in state and local elections can potentially affect state and local tax status. You should seek expert advice before voting in state or local elections.

Yes, if you are over 18, a US citizen, and are abroad for whatever reason when voting is to be done. The only exceptions are if you’ve never lived in the US and your parents last place of US residence is in a state that does NOT allow such children to vote (16 states DO allow you to vote) — see your states requirements here.

If you are not 100% certain you will be there to vote on voting day or in time for casting an absentee ballot, we still recommend you file the ballot request FPCA now. It will allow you to vote in case your plans change.

No, thanks to recent law changes and some nice websites that automate the process, voting is actually a very simple process:

• you go to www.VoteFromAbroad.org and answer a few questions about your address abroad and in the US
• you print out, sign and mail the form to your local election official (they even give you the address to send it to). Most states allow you to email or fax it back.
• you will receive a ballot about 45 days before any election, which you print, fill out, and return as instructed.
• If you have received a timely ballot request form from you local election official, you should use that instead of the FPCA, being careful to follow the instructions.

The answer is simple: you vote using the last address in the US where you resided or now reside, even if you never voted there before. If you never lived in the US see the answer above about “Can I vote from here?”. If you need to know your Congressional District, you can find that here.

You need to file your ballot request/registration form in plenty of time to give your election official time to get you a timely ballot. So do it now. Deadlines and related info for each state can be found here.

All you need is some very basic information:

• Your name, last US address, birth date, and either state driver’s license number or last 4 digits of your Social Security number
• Your present overseas address and/or where you would like a ballot sent. Be sure to specify that you want it sent by "email/online".
• Your phone number, email address or fax number if you have them
• Whether you are abroad “indefinitely” (i.e. without any firm plans to move back to the US) or whether you do have plans to move back
  That’s it!

It depends on your situation but usually we recommend getting your ballot by email or fax; by post is much slower. Note that question on the FPCA form is just for how you want to receive your BALLOT, and not about returning it. So there’s no real reason to worry about fraud in this case.

Yes, www.VoteFromAbroad.org supports filling in the form using your iPhone or Android phone with an internet browser. Then you can email the resulting pdf file to yourself or transfer to something where you can print it.

Probably yes, though it’s state dependent. Check here if you want to do this.

Now most states allow you to send the FPCA to your local election official via fax or email — see instructions on where to send to that you get from VoteFromAbroad.org. If in doubt about where to send to, check here or contact us. Also the US Consulates will mail it for you — get it to one of them (Bali, Surabaya, Jakarta) though you need US stamps or a postage-paid envelope (see here if you need help printing the postage-paid envelope), and everything properly addressed including your return address. Also we will mail it for you — just get it to one of us and we’ll take care of it (we’re in Ubud, Bali). Plan on about 4-6 weeks any way you choose for mailing. And of course you can use the more expensive EMS or FedEx/DHL/… services if you want.

Each state has different dates for primary elections, see here for yours.  The general election is Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2020. All US expats can vote in all Federal elections (President, Senate, Congress). You should ensure your ballot is returned by that date, though some states allow a few more days grace for overseas ballots. Primary election dates depend on the state.

If your ballot hasn’t arrived 30 days before the election, you should vote a FWAB (Federal WriteIn Absentee Ballot). If you used VoteFromAbroad.org to generate your FPCA, you may already have the FWAB form in the pdf file they produced. If not you can go there and generate it quickly. There you should write in your choices at least for President/Vice President, Senate (if there’s a Senate race in your state), and Congressional. You can see the candidates to vote on by going here. Note that many states nwo allow you to fax or email your ballot back. But be sure you follow instructions carefully. Contact us for further help.

There are several sources of unbiased and reliable information on candidates and issues for elections virtually everywhere.

• Project Vote Smart has a great site for this
• And of course you can check your favorite political party or candidates sites themselves for information, as well as your local government websites and offices.

If your state allows you to return your ballot by fax, might need to scan and fax it. That’s preferable over mailing it back since mailing is very slow. See here for how to do either scan or fax with your smart phone.

For states that require you to return the physical ballot (20 states in 2020 so require), you have less time to get it back. Airmail from Indonesia is not currently (2020) supported, seamail takes much too long, so you need other options. If you know someone going back to the US who will mail it for you, you can do that — it doesn’t have to be sent from here. The US Consulates and Embassy will send them back for you if you have proper postage on them (or using a supplied postage-paid envelope) — takes about 4-6 weeks. And of course you can use the more expensive EMS or FedEx/DHL/… services if you want. (See here if you need help printing the postage-paid envelope.) Contact us if you need help with mailing. Sign up for our email bulletins and we’ll keep you informed.)