How to Request Your Absentee Ballot From Overseas for US Elections
Where there's a will, there's a way!
Today, my mom shared some phenomenal news. Early voting started yesterday (October 15, 2024) in Georgia, and voters in the Peach State hit the ground running. They cast a record-setting 328,000 ballots!
I didn’t even know early voting had begun. But while they were casting their votes, I was on the phone with my county elections office, trying to request my overseas absentee ballot.
The lady who took my call didn’t listen and couldn’t care less. I explained three times that I was in Spain. And she asked me three times why I didn’t just come into my local office and pick up a ballot “today”. 🤦♀️
Sadly, this is very on-brand for my voting experience in Georgia.
Since becoming a naturalized citizen in 2020, I’ve requested three absentee ballots. I received none of them on time to vote, and one never came at all. However, this is my first time requesting an overseas absentee ballot, so maybe the fourth time’s the charm?
Georgia has notoriously made it difficult for some communities and demographics to vote. One Georgia election law banned people from handing out food and water to people standing in line. Many of these people (often in non-White communities) were waiting in line for hours—even in the heat and rain!
If the news you watch tells you otherwise, I’d recommend finding a new channel. As a local, I can tell you this happened for a fact. It was so bad that I changed my residency to Nevada and voted from there instead.
But if your residency change is to an overseas country—like I’ve now done four years later—we have options!
Here’s how to cast your vote in the US Presidential Elections from overseas.
Generally speaking, if you’re eligible to vote in the US, you should be eligible to vote from abroad. Start here at FVAP.gov to see what your state requirements are. There’s a map that allows you to choose your state of US residency.
Some states may still allow you to vote even if you’ve never lived in the US and haven’t established a state residency. You can find the rules for that here.
I’m sure this goes without saying, but you must register to vote before requesting a ballot.
Here’s how I requested an absentee ballot for Georgia from Spain
When I select GEORGIA and GO on that map, it takes me to this page. From here, you can apply for a ballot via a Federal Post Card Application. Alternatively, you can follow the link to contact your local elections office.
The workers there might have specific county or state information about how to request your absentee ballot. The unhelpful woman I spoke to at my county elections office told me to check “My Voter Page”. When I asked for a URL, she said she didn’t know it, couldn’t help me further, and hung up.
Thanks to good ole Google, I found the website here. From there, I entered my information and followed the instructions to complete and submit my absentee ballot request online. This is what the form looks like for Georgia.
The Peach State requires an “ink signature” even for electronic requests. It tacked on a few extra steps to my process:
I filled out the form on my computer and saved it.
I sent the form to myself via email and saved a backup to my Google Drive.
The next day (today), I visited a local “copy shop” in Barcelona and emailed them the form.
They printed the form, and I signed it.
They then scanned the signed form and emailed me an electronic copy.
I came home and uploaded the electronic copy to Georgia’s My Voter system as my final step.
I received a confirmation of my ballot request on-screen and via email.
I can only speak to the Georgia process. But if I survived it, surely no state could be worse! Here are a few things to note:
The process is much easier if you have an active Georgia Driver’s License.
The need to print, sign, scan, and upload the document was ridiculous but doable.
I liked that I could submit my electronic request via a system instead of email because the ballot that never came was one I had submitted to my county office via email—like they said we could in 2020.
Georgia also allows me to receive this overseas ballot via email.
Here are some additional resources for persons requesting ballots from overseas:
A quick note on the change of plans:
Last week, I said our next post (this one!) would be for paid subscribers and would cover the process of shipping my suitcase from Atlanta to Barcelona. But, I think we can agree that this is far more important and should be free to anyone who needs it.
Next time, we’ll resume our usual schedule.
Happy travels—wherever they may take you! And if you’re a US citizen, remember that every vote counts!
UPDATE (October 18, 2024): I got my ballot!
I guess the fourth time really was the charm. Georgia sent my ballot via email. I’ll need to print, sign, and mail it back.