18

I was surprised to learn that US citizens can vote for President even if they do not reside in the US. What State do their votes count towards with regards to the Electoral College?

Improve this question
9
  • 1
    Related but more specific: Registering for a midterm election as a US citizen abroad (never-resident).
    – phoog
    Commented Jul 30 at 8:13
  • 4
    Many countries (but not all for sure) allow 'expats' to vote. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-resident_citizen_voting The artcile has a section on the US, by the way.
    – 264 champagne bottles on ice
    Commented Jul 30 at 10:58
  • 4
    Given that US citizens are responsible for filing US tax forms every year, regardless of where they live and work, and are responsible for paying any taxes they owe, why would you think they wouldn't be allowed to vote?
    – Kyralessa
    Commented Jul 31 at 17:18
  • 2
    I second @Kyralessa 's question. Remind me who said "No Taxation without Representation".
    – Simon Crase
    Commented Aug 1 at 4:40
  • 1
    @Kyralessa A very reasonable argument. In different countries it seems all over the place. German citizens can vote wherever they live, Brits must be residents, just as an example.
    – gnasher729
    Commented Aug 1 at 8:37

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
30

What state do their votes count towards with regards to the electoral college?

The state in which they are registered. For people who formerly resided in the US, it's the state where they last resided. For those who never did, whether they can vote depends on where their parents resided. See https://www.fvap.gov/citizen-voter for more information.

Improve this answer
4
  • Hypothetically, if a US citizen who never resided in the US was born to two US citizen parents each of whom had resided in a different state, and both of those states allowed them to vote, could they vote twice?
    – Brian
    Commented Jul 31 at 0:21
  • 10
    No. It is legal to be registered to vote in two different states, but illegal to vote in both.
    – tomr
    Commented Jul 31 at 3:56
  • 1
    @tomr Is that a federal law, or is it only true because every state has such a law?
    – Brian
    Commented Aug 1 at 1:52
  • 3
    @Brian it is a federal law. See 52 USC 10307(e): "(1) Whoever votes more than once in an election referred to in paragraph (2) shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both."
    – phoog
    Commented Aug 1 at 12:02
13

The Federal government does not conduct elections. The Federal Voting Assistance Program is merely a standardized way for people living abroad to find out how to register and obtain ballots from their home state. Elections are conducted by states and municipalities. For people living abroad, you still must be registered with a state, and those states still require some residency.

All states have an absentee voting system (at a minimum, a state will likely have military citizens deployed overseas), and all of them seem to have a voting division expressly for people living abroad. Florida, for instance, has a Military and Overseas Citizen Voting site. They even have a whole state law just for that purpose. Once a person is registered, they will be sent an absentee (or vote-by-mail) ballot ahead of the election. Assuming the ballot is returned properly, the ballot counts like any other, and electoral votes are awarded in accordance with state law (in Florida's case, winner takes all).

Improve this answer
4
  • 1
    "and those states still require some residency." However, I believe that federal law requires states to register US citizens not residing in the US to vote for federal elections in the state if that state was the person's last state of domicile. So they do not have to have residency in the state.
    – user102008
    Commented Jul 30 at 16:28
  • 3
    @user102008 That's why they said "some residency" rather than "current residency". It includes previous residency.
    – Barmar
    Commented Jul 30 at 17:27
  • 2
    37 states permit you to vote in that state without ever having resided in the United States, though many of them only permit you to vote for federal offices.
    – Mark
    Commented Jul 31 at 2:02
  • 1
    for completeness, I'll note that the federal government does provide a way to both register and vote that does not require a state ballot, the Federal Write-in Absentee Ballot, available to all overseas voters as an "emergency back up" option. I had to use this in the 1996 election when deployed overseas without mail service; the conventions hadn't even been held so I could only really cast a party vote. It still does eventually get to the state of residency and is handled like any other state absentee ballot. See fvap.gov/r3/fwab/state
    – Daniel Widdis
    Commented Jul 31 at 23:45

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .