Press Releases

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.

Arlington, VA – December 16, 2024 – U.S. Vote Foundation (US Vote) and Overseas Vote are pleased to announce preliminary findings of their 2024 Voter Experience Survey, conducted between November 5 and December 1, 2024. With over 12,000 respondents, the survey sheds light on the contrasting experiences of domestic and overseas voters in the 2024 General Election, highlighting key trends in voter satisfaction, ease of voting, and political engagement.

Overseas absentee voters faced significantly more challenges in casting their ballots compared to domestic voters. One-quarter (25.5%) of overseas absentee voters reported difficulty or extreme difficulty voting.

When U.S. citizens live outside the country, their right to vote has always been considered sacrosanct, and not just for members of the U.S. Armed forces, but also for civilians abroad who now outnumber those in the military. This expatriate voting block is now enormous, about 6.5 million people around the world - potentially enough to swing election results.

For more on this, we're joined by Susan Suinat, President and CEO of the U.S. Vote Foundation. She joins us from Munich, Germany. As we say, 6.5 million American voters are overseas. 1.6 million of them from battleground states. I mean, if they actually do cast their votes, they could potentially move some of these swing states.