US Vote Blog

College students ought to have easily accessible, transparent information to questions they have about voting: Where can I register to vote? How do I register to vote? How do I get an absentee ballot?

After scouring 50 different Secretary of State websites in search of answers to these questions, one observation was clearer than the rest: navigating the voting process for college students is unnecessarily complicated and opaque. And while state-by-state answers to these questions are available here on the US Vote Foundation website, there are some findings and interpretations that I would like to share....

Those of you who log on to U.S. Vote Foundation (US Vote) and Overseas Vote for help in getting your ballot or contacting your local election official may be surprised to know that we have another important mission: helping other organizations, companies, and even states provide the same services to...

With the passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution now more than 100 years ago, we suggest that it is worthwhile to take a look at what led to that historic moment. While 1920 marked the first election in which women could vote for president, it was hardly the first time that women were “allowed” to vote in the United States.

The saga of the journey from colonial disenfranchisement to the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the modern era is a journey into the complicated history of voting in the United States, one that has oscillated between inclusion and exclusion since the dawn of our democracy.

One of the first women to vote in the United Stateswas Sacagawea, the young Shoshone woman who helped lead the Lewis and Clark expedition from the Central Plains to the mouth of the Columbia River.

This second post in a new series on overseas voting is by Mariana Neisuler, a career diplomat in the U.S. diplomatic service. Her views are presented in a personal and non-partisan capacity and do not represent those of the U.S. Department of State.

My Macedonian driver was chatting away as he made blood curdling turns along a mountainous road on the way to an Albanian village. It was June 2008 and Macedonia was holding its first early elections since the country’s founding in 1991. I was the Embassy’s elections monitor. As I willed myself to nap to avoid thinking about the abyss an inch away from our tires, I started thinking about an encounter just a couple of days earlier.

Every four years we gear up for a presidential election that consumes our collective attention like no other national event. The amount of energy – positive and negative – devoted to the primaries, the conventions, and the general election often obscures those other elections that take place on...

This inaugural post in a new series on overseas voting is by Peter Neisuler, a career diplomat who has worked in the U. S. diplomatic service for over 15 years. In addition to his official duties, Peter, his fellow-diplomat wife Mariana Neisuler, and their children are all volunteers for U.S. Vote...

Why we shouldn’t fear an all-mail voting pandemic

by Gavin Thompson Weise, Election Data Manager, U.S. Foundation

The Wisconsin primary held earlier this month has shown us that in-person voting right now is impractical, if not downright dangerous. Mail voting, meanwhile, is offering an...

No one is untouched by the 2020 pandemic / public health crisis. No one knows how long this will go on, or how it might transform itself and us. Each one of us, everyday, is personally faced with our challenge and responsibility to carry on and to plan ahead.

But we do know that in the face of this crisis, Election Day 2020 is inevitable. What might seem eons away for some, is tomorrow for those who must prepare for it. We already know, that to make it safe to vote, we all need the option of a paper ballot that we can complete in our own home and mail back securely.

As the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases increase across the country, lawmakers are scrambling to provide voters safe and effective means to cast their ballots in the 2020 primaries



by Gavin Thompson Weise, Election Data Manager, U.S. Vote Foundation



A quick internet search for “safety and...