Overseas Americans’ right to vote is under threat – we must use it or lose in 2026. FAWCO clubs and members should prepare now to exercise that right in the US elections in 2026. FAWCO clubs and members should start now to spread the word:
As soon as you get up, or sober up, on New Year’s Day, go to a safe, secure, nonpartisan website – such as those of the US Vote Foundation and the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) – and fill out the form to register/request a ballot for the 2026 US elections.
Here’s the drill. Register/Request your own ballot first (following the tips below) and then work in your clubs and communities to turn out other overseas voters. This article gives the example of a campaign planned by a FAWCO club – what can you and your club do to equal or better it? Share information and ideas with the US Voting Committee – or join it – by emailing .
Threats and barriers we face
FAWCO’s US Voting Committee has detailed the threats to our rights here and here. In addition, overseas Americans have a shorter time to act and face higher barriers than voters in the US. Our “election year” lasts a little over 9 months.
- Voters in the US can register at any time; we can only start registering on January 1 of each election year, must re-register in every election year and face shorter registration deadlines and an earlier Election Day.
- Voter-suppression laws have moved registration deadlines up in the calendar.
- While federal law requires states to send ballots to overseas voters at least 45 days before the election (Saturday, September 19, 2026), we must return them almost immediately: in September (October if we push it), about a month before Election Day (Tuesday, November 3, 2026), to be sure that our votes are counted.
Tips for individuals: registration and follow-up
- Identifying what kind of voter you are, and thus what kind of ballot you will get, is almost the first thing you do in filling out the form.
- If you click “US citizen living outside the country, and I intend to return,” you will get a ballot with not only federal offices (President and Vice-president, US Senate and House of Representatives) but also state and local offices (if the state allows that). You will also be liable to have the information you give on the form used for state and local tax purposes. Saying “I intend to return” means that you aim to return to the US permanently at some point: it's a statement of an intention, not a firm plan.
- If you click on “US citizen living outside the country, and my return is uncertain,” you will get a ballot for federal offices only, and your information cannot be used for tax purposes.
- Give both a US voting address (the last address you voted/lived at in the US) in order to qualify as a voter in your state, and your current address, to which your ballot will be sent. You do not need to own or have any current connection to your voting address. It’s also a good idea to give your email address and telephone number, in case your local election official needs to contact you.
- In later parts of the form, remember to click the boxes that will ensure:
- electronic ballot delivery; and
- your right to vote in all elections during 2026.
- When you have completed the form, the website will generate a multipage PDF containing your form, often with the date already added for you. Download the PDF, check that the contents of the form are correct, and then print and sign it. The form isn’t valid if the info is incorrect or your signature or the date is missing. Always check that your form shows correct data, the date (in the format requested by your state) and your signature.
- Then send the form as quickly and safely as possible to your local election official (LEO). The PDF will include both instructions on returning the form and the name and contact details of your LEO.
- Depending on your state’s rules, you can return the form electronically, by mail (use regular mail, not registered), through your embassy/consulate or through a carrier service such as DHL.
- Follow up. Keep the PDF in your files and contact the LEO a couple of weeks after you return the form to ensure that you are registered with no problems. Also keep a copy of the signed form; this will let you check the signature you used, which is important in states that include signature matching as part of their process for verifying registrations/ballots.
All Americans overseas who were born in the USA are eligible to vote in the USA, even if they have never voted there. Things are different for so-called “citizen children”: people born outside the USA but who have citizenship and can document a cumulative physical presence in the US for at least five years, two of which were after the age of 14. Their rights are particularly under attack. Click here for additional info on them.
What clubs and communities can do
As the safety messages on airplanes always say, if the oxygen masks are deployed, be sure your put on your own mask before trying to help anyone else. So fill out and send your form first. After you have registered/requested a ballot, spread the message above in your club and any other groups in your community to which you belong. Spread the word to all the other overseas Americans you can find, and ask others to spread it to any Americans they know.
A member of the US Voting Committee reports on their club’s plans to start turning out the oversea vote in 2026.
We … are organizing our campaign to get people to request their ballots, launching on January 15. We are working in concert with [two other groups]. One branch of our group will make reminder calls and send postcards to registered voters [in the country where the club is located]. The second branch is the one I am most interested in and that is international schools [in the city where the club is located]. First, we plan to reach out to our membership to ask those with children in a school here to be our contact person to admin and parent groups. Then we'll go with that member to personally work with the teachers, parents and students (if high school or college). We want to set up this communication tree and then build on it through cold calling those schools with no member connection. The goal is to complete this in Q1/2026. Once we have this in place, we can remind people, when ballots are sent, they need to mark it and mail it ASAP.
Can your club do this, or something different? Inform the US Voting Committee () to start spreading the word. Let’s get busy.
