The Trump administration used an emergency measure this summer to change the language of the federal voter-registration form used by U.S. service members abroad and citizens residing outside the country, potentially restricting some eligible American voters abroad from using the application to request their ballots.
Advocates for American citizens overseas say the changes will spark confusion among eligible voters abroad and officials within U.S. election offices. They argue the changes effectively disenfranchise some voters abroad, but the Pentagon says the changes are meant to align the form with federal law. More than 2 million Americans living abroad are eligibleto cast their ballots in U.S. elections.
Doris Speer, president of the Association of Americans Resident Overseas, said she believes the changes to the form known as the Federal Post Card Application are “an effort to deter the overseas vote, not to legally stop people from voting but to make the process so difficult that you really have to want to vote to get through it. The result will be confusion, chaos and fewer overseas votes.”
The changes to the form follow the Trump administration’s unsuccessful efforts to restrict voting by mail and pass sweeping voter ID legislation. That proposed legislation, the Save America Act, would require Americans to prove their citizenship when registering to vote and show photo ID to vote, and permit the Department of Homeland Security to obtain access to voter rolls.
The political stakes of the upcoming midterm election are high for the GOP. Republicans are in danger of losing their majority in the House of Representatives, and Democrats have vowed to step up their investigations into President Donald if they are in the majority.
In August, the Pentagon sought emergency approval to make several changes to the Federal Post Card Application, used by U.S. voters abroad to register to vote and request an absentee ballot. The Pentagon did not solicit public feedback on the change, as normally would be a part of the process for a document change of this nature.
The Pentagon told The Washington Post in a statement that recent updates were made “to streamline voter identification instructions and ensure alignment with Federal law” but did not detail which federal law. The Pentagon also did not explain what emergency allowed the government to expedite the form changes.
In an Aug. 13 letter to the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs seeking emergency processing to alter the form, Deputy Undersecretary of War for Personnel and Readiness Sean O’Keefe wrote that the changes were necessary because the previous version of the document may have confused “voters about the information they are required to provide under Federal law and their eligibility to use these forms to register and vote.”
In justifying the emergency, O’Keefe wrote that “the next Federal election is fewer than 90 days away, so there is insufficient time to modify” the forms via the standard process, adding that “public harm is reasonably likely to result if normal clearance procedures and time periods are followed.”
Elections are typically scheduled years in advance. Tammy Patrick, a longtime elections administrator who serves as the chief program officer at the National Association of Election Officials, and other advocates for U.S. voters overseas say they still don’t understand what constituted an emergency in this case.
“I don’t think there is an actual emergency,” Patrick said. “I have not heard from any election officials about anything related to our infrastructure, neither at the state level … nor at any local level, causing any major concern within our hundreds and hundreds of members.”
Most notably, the new version of the form changes ID requirements and eliminates a checkbox that allows a voter to declare, “I am a US citizen living outside the country, I have never lived in the United States.” That category, sometimes referred to as “never resideds,” encompasses the adult children of U.S. citizens who have long lived abroad.
A 1986 law established federal protections for military and overseas voters. But states determine voter eligibility rules and residence requirements. Currently, “never resideds” are eligible to vote in 37 states based on their parents’ previous residence.
Along with changes to the form itself, the General Services Administration’s website for the newly altered form also states that it “is for absent Uniform Service members, their families, and citizens residing outside the U.S. intending on returning only.” Previously, the federal government made no distinction on who was eligible to use the form based on whether an American citizen intended to return to the United States.
Susan Dzieduszycka-Suinat, president and CEO of the nonprofit U.S. Vote Foundation, said that changing the form “without an effective public comment process sends a terrible message to the people who have always been part of it: election officials, usability experts, and organizations like ours. That process used to give us a form that supported voter participation and made life easier for election administrators.”
Speer, with the Association of Americans Resident Overseas, said she isn’t interested in mounting a legal fight ahead of the midterm election, arguing that any effort to stop the federal government from using the new form could create even more confusion for voters. But Dzieduszycka-Suinat said U.S. Vote Foundation is “investigating this issue and the emergency process that was used with legal counsel.” She said the organization is prepared to fight in court.
Eligible “never resided” voters must now seek their ballots through states, rather than through the federal government.
California, for example, is one of 37 states that allow a U.S. citizen who never has lived in the United States to vote if their parent or legal guardian was previously registered to vote as a resident of the state. The California secretary of state’s office told The Post that the state’s online voter-registration application continues to include a category for U.S. citizens who “have never resided in the U.S.”
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