For many American citizens living abroad, making sure their ballots are returned correctly and on time hundreds or thousands of miles away, back in the United States, can be tough.
But with the 2026 midterm election approaching, U.S. expatriates and their advocates say voting faces more uncertainty than usual, as Republican officials continue a push for more restrictions on overseas voters, including U.S. military members stationed abroad.
Some 2.8 million U.S. adult citizens living abroad were eligible to vote in 2022, the latest year for federal estimates. And with turnout for overseas voters long trailing that of domestic voters (3.4% compared to 62.5% in 2022), voting rights advocates fear GOP-led lawsuits and proposals could drive down participation even further.
"It really stands out," says Susan Dzieduszycka-Suinat, president and CEO of the U.S. Vote Foundation, a nonpartisan organization that advocates for U.S. citizens casting ballots from outside the country. "I have to admit that 20 years ago when I got involved with overseas voting, I did not fast forward to this time where I thought we would be fighting for our basic rights. But it seems like that's what's on the chopping block here."
GOP officials are pushing to block voting by citizens who've never lived in the U.S.
Much of the current fight is centered on overseas citizens who were born abroad and have never lived in the United States, including those with U.S. citizen parents or legal guardians serving abroad in the U.S. military.
Thirty-seven states, plus Washington, D.C., allow these citizens to vote if a relative last lived in the state or territory before leaving the country. Some places allow these voters to only cast ballots in federal elections, while others also allow voting in state and local races.
North Carolina
Last year, in the final weeks of voting for the 2024 general election, the Republican National Committee challenged the legitimacy of these voters' ballots in the swing states of Michigan and North Carolina, claiming rules allowing these voters to cast ballots violated state constitutions. No ballots ended up getting tossed, as the lawsuits were dismissed. In explaining the decision to throw out one of the cases, Michigan Court of Claims Judge Sima Patel called it an "11th hour attempt to disenfranchise these electors."
But a long-running legal fight started by the GOP candidate in a North Carolina state Supreme Court election did lead to state court rulings in April that have resulted in a major change for overseas non-resident voters registered in the swing state: They are now no longer allowed to vote in state and local races, only in federal elections.
"While this is not probably the policy decision that anybody would have come up with, I think it is the best fit to bring us into compliance with those various court decisions in the way they overlap, the way federal law and state law overlap," said Sam Hayes, executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, during a public meeting in July. "They are [U.S. citizens], and they have to vote somewhere."
Voting rights advocates in North Carolina are worried about more potential restrictions, though, from a bill by Republican state Rep. Hugh Blackwell. While the official legislative summary says the latest version of the bill would effectively codify the state election board's position, advocates say the way it's written would make a bigger change: taking away the ability of overseas non-resident voters in North Carolina to cast ballots in federal elections.
"What we're seeing in this provision of HB 958 is the complete disenfranchisement of this category of voters," says Ann Webb, policy director for Common Cause North Carolina.
Blackwell did not agree to an interview and did not respond to written questions from NPR.
Arizona
The RNC is now following its lawsuits last year in Michigan and North Carolina with a similar effort in Arizona. The group filed a state court challenge in June claiming that a 20-year-old state law allowing overseas non-resident voters to cast ballots in federal and state elections violates the Arizona Constitution.
The RNC declined NPR's interview request but confirmed in a statement that more legal challenges may be coming in other states that allow these U.S. citizens to vote.
"RNC lawsuits are absolutely part of our strategy heading into the midterms," Kiersten Pels, a spokesperson for the RNC, said. "Allowing individuals who have never lived in the United States to register to vote dilutes the voting power of lawful Arizona voters."
Advocates for these U.S. citizens say efforts to block voting by what GOP officials often refer to as "never residents" discount the connections that many of those born abroad have with communities in the United States.
"We should never as Americans, I would hope, want to penalize children of those who serve for their parents' service and their service. We should never want to take away a right for them because their parents chose to serve the country," says Brandi Jones, a spouse of an active-duty Marine, who helps lead Secure Families Initiative, an advocacy group for military families.
Nationwide
The voting system for U.S. citizens living abroad could be further upended by a House bill introduced in August by Republican Rep. Abe Hamadeh of Arizona, who previously served abroad for the U.S. Army.
The Proving Residency for Overseas Voter Eligibility, or PROVE, Act would require overseas voters to have a "current residence" in the state they're registered, or a spouse, parent or guardian with such a residence. Overseas voters who do not would be able to register in Washington, D.C., and vote in federal elections in the district, which is represented in Congress by a non-voting delegate.
Hamadeh did not agree to an interview or respond to written questions from NPR. The bill's four other Republican sponsors also did not respond to NPR's requests for comment.
But in a press release, Hamadeh said allowing overseas voters without a "current residence" in a state to cast ballots there "threatens electoral integrity and is an affront to everyone who believes in fair and free elections."
For Dzieduszycka-Suinat of the U.S. Vote Foundation, the bill is the latest sign that the threats to overseas voting that began during the 2024 election have not gone away.
"Actually, it's transformed into an even worse monster because now we have the PROVE Act hanging out there," Dzieduszycka-Suinat says.
Overseas voters are now mostly civilians, not military
Dzieduszycka-Suinat sees these GOP-led moves as a reaction to the Democratic National Committee's voter-registration push last year among U.S. citizens living abroad.
A September 2024 social media post by President Trump appeared to refer to that effort by claiming — without evidence — that Democrats "want to dilute the TRUE vote of our beautiful military and their families" with ballots sent overseas "without any citizenship check or verification of identity."
Meanwhile, election officials have tracked an ongoing demographic shift among registered overseas voters. Beginning with the 2016 election, civilians have been outnumbering military members and any eligible family members stationed with them abroad. In 2024, civilians made up 59.3% of registered voters covered by the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, while 39.8% were military service members and their relatives, according to estimates released by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.
"There's nothing that went wrong here. It's just that some people got their knickers in a twist that maybe overseas voters — their votes can't be controlled to vote for any one single party," Dzieduszycka-Suinat says. "Certain groups are going after splinters of the UOCAVA vote to get particular wins that don't amount to much, but really have a terrible negative impact on the overall sense of principle regarding our voting rights."
Indeed, the GOP admits a partisan motive.
In its Arizona lawsuit, the RNC claims that allowing overseas non-resident voters to cast ballots "inflicts a competitive injury" on both the state and national GOP by adding to the state's voter rolls "individuals who are disproportionately non-Republican in their partisan affiliations."
Proof-of-citizenship requirements could also complicate overseas voting
Other Republican efforts related to overseas voting raise the specter of voter fraud.
Despite no evidence of widespread fraud among overseas voters, some Republican officials are calling for additional requirements in order for voters to register or cast their ballots.
When processing new voter registrations, most states use an applicant's personal information, such as their Social Security number, to confirm their eligibility with government databases.
Still, a GOP-backed bill in Congress would require eligible overseas voters registering by mail using a state's voter registration form to show their passport or another document proving their U.S. citizenship "in person to the office of the appropriate election official." The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, also known as the SAVE Act, passed the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives in April.
Similarly, in March, Trump put out an executive order that calls for a change to the federal post card application that many military and overseas voters use. His plan would require a passport or another document proving their U.S. citizenship, as well as "proof of eligibility to vote in elections in the State in which the voter is attempting to vote."
Trump's order also tries to put pressure on states that count absentee ballots that are postmarked by Election Day but received afterwards — a move that advocates of overseas voters say raises the risk that votes of citizens living abroad could get thrown out because of mail delays.
After Secure Families Initiative and other organizations, plus a group of states, filed lawsuits, federal judges have put parts of the order on hold for now. In her decision from June, which the Trump administration is appealing, U.S. District Judge Denise Casper wrote that "neither the Constitution nor any statute grants the President the authority" to change the federal post card application. (Still, Trump has said he's planning another executive order on mail voting.)
Rebecca Nowatchik, an Air Force spouse who is Secure Families Initiative's director of external partnerships, says if carried out, Trump's March order would add "very burdensome requirements to what is already a difficult process" for military and overseas voters. They may not have easy access to their citizenship documents and could have a hard time finding a secure way of sending them to election officials.
"This is solving a problem that doesn't exist," Nowatchik says. "There are already these very robust ways of checking citizenship of voters that are voting. It's a system that isn't broken. And there are so many other things that we could be spending time on to correct in this country. And so we're very perplexed as to why these attempts are happening, particularly to a community that's already having a difficult time to participate."
In Canada, the country with the largest number of voting-age U.S. citizens, all of these efforts have led Kate Sable to reconsider her rights as a U.S. citizen registered to vote in North Carolina.
Her two adult sons who were born abroad are among the state's overseas non-resident voters who can no longer vote in state elections — a change that Sable fears could lead to more disenfranchisement.
"Contemplating the thought of not being able to, or my children not being able to, just makes me realize how precious the right to vote is and just how important it is as a citizen of a democratic country," says Sable, a member of the Association of Americans Resident Overseas.
She's now making plans to cast a ballot in next year's midterm election from Toronto, she adds, while holding her breath for potential complications.
"I think it's very uncertain in this moment — very, very uncertain," Sable says. "And I'm just very committed to making sure that I can vote."
Edited by Benjamin Swasey
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