It’s more than time for FAWCO and its clubs and members to strongly encourage overseas Americans to vote in the 2022 US elections. While Election Day is November 8 in the US, it comes a month earlier for overseas voters – who must receive and return absentee ballots by the deadlines set by their states. Overseas voters must start the process even earlier – now, if they haven’t already – to ensure that they are registered to vote in time. As noted, many states have made new rules and requirements that making voting harder.
The US Voting Committee has already offered advice to individual overseas voters. Now we must broaden our focus to include voter-registration activities by and in FAWCO clubs.
What you and your club can do
1. “Secure your own oxygen mask before attempting to assist others.” (Get yourself registered first).
Be sure that you are registered before trying to help others register. Go to FAWCO’s partner, the US Vote Foundation, or the Federal Voting Assistance program (FVAP), fill out the form online and send it to your local election official, carefully following all the instructions. In view of delays in the US Postal Service, request that your ballot be delivered electronically (and return your ballot in the same way if your state permits that). Then check with that official a couple of weeks later to be sure you’re on the rolls. (Urge all other voters to do the same when you get to them.) Urge message recipients to pass the message to other Americans.
2. Promote voting in your daily life.
Urge all the other Americans you know to register to vote, and advise and assist them as needed. Urge your friends and acquaintances to do the same. Give voting information in the signature of your email, and voting graphics and information on your website and social-media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, etc.).
3. Promote voting in your club and local community.
Give information on voting in your club newsletter and at virtual and in-person meetings of your club and its interest groups. Hold dedicated virtual and/or in-person events to inform and register voters. Give voting graphics and information on your club website and social-media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, etc.). Do/Offer the same for any other group you belong to, and any US expat group operating in your vicinity.
Answer voters’ questions, if you have the knowledge, or direct them to FAWCO (), or the voter help desks or FAQs of the US Vote Foundation or FVAP (Some US embassy/consulate officials can do this, too, but they are operating with reduced capacity at present.)
Resources
For all these tasks, use the regularly updated information and resources provided by FAWCO; get them from:
- the US Voting section of the FAWCO website, and its monthly articles; and
- FAWCO publications, such as the quarterly US Liaison Bulletin and the monthly News in Brief (NiB).
We also offer three videos on FAWCO’s YouTube channel:
- Why the rush to register to vote? (1:34)
- Information and support from FAWCO (1:05)
- Voter registration: demonstration (5:30)
All three date from 2020, but are still accurate in general terms. Soon we expect the US Vote Foundation and FVAP to offer outreach materials, too.