Press Releases

U.S. Vote Foundation and its Overseas Vote initiative respectfully submit this comment in strong opposition to the petition filed by the America First Legal Foundation requesting that the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) require documentary proof of U.S. citizenship for voter registration.

The petition now before the EAC seeks to impose new documentary proof-of-citizenship requirements on voter registration. This proposal is unnecessary, unsupported by evidence, and would create serious new risks and barriers for UOCAVA voters.

Requiring voters to transmit copies of citizenship documents such as passports introduces major security and logistical problems. There is no secure, standardized, or federally certified system for U.S. voters to upload or transmit these sensitive identification documents, nor for election officials to verify them safely.

Response to Threatened Federal Executive Order to Curtail Voting by Mail

U.S. Vote Foundation and our Overseas Vote and US.VOTE initiatives strongly condemn the recent presidential threats to restrict or eliminate voting by mail through executive order. Such an action would be unconstitutional, unprecedented, and an attack on the rights of millions of American voters, including our military and overseas citizens.

Voting by mail is a well-established, secure, and reliable method of casting a ballot. It is used successfully in every state and territory of the United States, with some states conducting their elections entirely by mail.

PROVE Act would suppress the votes of U.S. citizens abroad.

A coalition of leading organizations representing Americans living overseas — U.S. Vote Foundation and its Overseas Vote initiative, the Association of Americans Resident Overseas, and American Citizens Abroad — today issued a strong joint statement opposing the Proving Residency for Overseas Voter Eligibility Act, H.R. 4851 (“PROVE Act”).

If enacted, the PROVE Act would impose an arbitrary proof of “current” U.S. residence requirement on non-military overseas voters or, alternatively, an arbitrary Washington D.C. residency, disenfranchising the vast majority of U.S. citizens abroad.