If you haven’t requested your 2018 overseas absentee ballot and confirmed with your Local Election Office, now is the time! 16 states have big deadlines, PRIMARIES, and/or special elections in the next two weeks, including North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and West Virginia. Now’s the time for your voice to be heard.
Even if you’ve already requested your ballot, we need your help, too.
Even if you're a registered voter, your state is only required to send a ballot if you request it that calendar year, and sending in the form protects your ballot from challenge at the federal level in case of a recount. Don’t be disenfranchised; every vote matters, now more than ever!
This week’s Tiny Action: Help us confirm that voters in your state can easily vote from abroad and double check that your overseas absentee ballots are on the way if you haven’t already done so.
- Help us ensure that voters of your state can easily vote from abroad. Using our Local Election Office finder, find your State Election Website under State Lookup Tools.
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Complete this survey - just 6 questions about whether overseas voters can find the answers they need within five minutes on your state’s election website. We’ll use this information to provide recommendations to states and fine-tune our strategy to help voters in all 50 states vote.
- Finally, if you haven’t yet requested or confirmed that your ballots will arrive:
Click “start here” on Vote From Abroad, follow the prompts to complete your overseas absentee ballot request and mail it in as instructed (by post or electronically).
Then, find your Local Election Office here and contact your LEO to verify they received the form and will be sending out your 2018 ballots. Most states provide online ballot request status via their election website, but in EVERY state, your election official will respond to requests by email or telephone about the status of your overseas absentee ballot request (“FPCA”)
WHY IT MATTERS
At BEST, only 4% of Americans overseas vote. But for most of them, this is just because they don’t know they can, or they don’t know how. If we can ensure that answers are easy to find, this WILL change election results.
While Democrats Abroad is doing everything we can to activate members like you, there are millions of Americans overseas who visit their state websites looking for answers. We want to be sure those answers are findable and accurate.
Federal elections, including those in 2018, mean more than just President. It also means Senator and Representative. This year we have the chance to vote for ⅓ of the Senate and EVERY member of the House, and we need your help to power the wave!
Why do we suggest completing an overseas absentee ballot request?
Sent in the calendar year of an election, the overseas absentee ballot request ensures you receive a ballot for every election in that calendar year, including primaries, special elections and runoff elections. It also protects your ballot at the federal level in case of a recount.
With this form, you can request your ballot be sent via email, fax or online instead of by post; your state is required to send your ballot at least 45 days before the election; you are also given the option to submit a ‘backup’ ballot if your ballot does not arrive in time to send it in by the deadline. Many states also allow overseas voters additional time to submit their ballots and/or to submit ballots electronically.
Recent Related Tiny Actions
Protect yourself from Voter Purges
Volunteer to Help Register Voters Abroad
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As always, our aim is to turn tiny actions into big results, so we hope we can continue to count on your help! Please send suggestions for our next tiny action to info at democratsabroad dot org.