US citizens living outside their country have only had the right to vote in its elections for around 50 years. Long-time members recall how FAWCO sent a teabag to every member of Congress in 1976 – the bicentennial year – reminding them that “Taxation without representation is tyranny!” This right is under increasing attack.
The reasons are easy to see: trying to deprive us of our right seems both politically safe and likely to succeed. Why should overseas Americans, and organizations representing them, respond? For one thing, the new restrictions being proposed particularly endanger voting by women and “citizen children.” For another, the attacks on our rights under the Constitution are taking place while our obligations as citizens remain the same.
What we should do: go all out to vote in 2026
FAWCO and its member clubs should therefore fight back by turning out unprecedented numbers of overseas voters to cast their votes in the US elections in 2026. This would mean conducting a year-long campaign to help overseas Americans:
- remain informed about the issues and procedures to enable them to respond to changes;
- successfully register to vote in the US, which includes dealing with problems and obstructions that individual voters encounter; and
- safely navigate the process of receiving, completing and transmitting valid ballots that will be counted.
(To do this, it would help to have a member of the US Voting Committee in every FAWCO club that has American members. This would help FAWCO members stay informed and serve as a valuable team for rapid response to new attacks. To join the committee, write to .)
Exercising and defending our rights as US citizens in 2026 may require a long and tough struggle. Let’s start the work today.
Tips for operating in a hostile environment
We are, sadly, helping Americans exercise a right given by the Constitution to every citizen in a hostile environment. These tips may therefore be useful.
- Voting advocates should advise voters to take every step in the process:
- as early as possible: almost any problem a voter encounters can be solved if there is enough time to take action;
- with special care to do it both correctly and completely, and follow up with local election officials, who are especially important when a process is designed to be complicated and provoke errors; and
- with a Plan B in mind to cope with any problems (e.g. using the Federal Write-in Absentee Ballot (FWAB) if the regular ballot either does not arrive in time or does not reach the local election official).
- Everyone, including overseas voters, should spread the word – and the work – as far and widely as possible. This means conducting as wide-ranging a campaign as possible, with as many partners and in as many areas and media as possible: in FAWCO, in our clubs and in workplaces, schools, churches and social groups.
- Voting advocates should:
- keep up with any changes in the situation by checking for and receiving information from the US Voting Committee and external partners, such as the Voting Assistance Guide of the Federal Voting Assistance Program; and
- be prepared to respond to new attacks on our right up to and even after Election Day in the US (November 3, 2026). The old days, when there was little to do after most overseas voters returned their ballots in September/October, are gone.
- Voters should:
- follow up on each step in the process: ask the local election official (the official’s contact details are in the PDFs that the voter receives) whether they have received and accepted the registration form and the ballot; and
- take action if the answer is no, by such as means as using the FWAB, contacting the US Voting Committee () and/or the helpdesks of nonpartisan partners such as the US Vote Foundation.
Start now: prepare voters to register as early as possible in January
US law requires overseas voters to register to vote/request a ballot during the year in which the election is held. While voters can’t send a registration form/ballot request to the local election official before 2026, FAWCO, its member clubs and their members should be telling all the overseas voters that they can reach, right now.