Some Overseas U.S. Citizens Disenfranchised in 13 States
By Doris L. Speer,
originally with Artemis Aburabi and Katelyn Mikysya[1]
Updated: June 22, 2026
Overview
The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), enacted by Congress in 1986, requires that the U.S. states and territories allow U.S. military personnel, their families, and qualified U.S. citizens residing overseas, to register and vote absentee in elections for federal offices.[2] These citizens residing overseas are entitled to register and vote absentee using the address from the last state in which they were domiciled before leaving the United States.[3]
But some overseas U.S. citizens cannot vote at all. These persons are typically born of and raised abroad by U.S. citizen parents and who, despite having many connections with the United States, did not establish their own “residence”[4] under a state law (the “Born Abroad”). UOCAVA doesn’t include them. However, in 37 states[5] (and the District of Columbia), legislation has been enacted to extend the right to vote to the Born Abroad who have a parent or legal guardian (and, in some cases, a spouse) who was last domiciled in that state:
- 26 states permit the Born Abroad to vote in both federal and state elections;
- 10 states (and the District of Columbia) permit them to vote in only federal elections. These states are: Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, New Hampshire[6], Rhode Island, Utah[7] and Wisconsin;
- Oregon is a special case: the Born Abroad may vote only if they state that they intend to reside in Oregon, among other criteria.
But 13 states do not permit Born Abroad U.S. citizens to register to vote from overseas in any election, whether federal or state. They are: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wyoming.
UOCAVA
UOCAVA is a federal law which was established to guarantee the right to vote in federal elections for members of the U.S. Uniformed Services and merchant marine and their families, and U.S. citizens residing abroad. UOCAVA overrides state residency requirements to register and vote in federal elections and, at the state's option, state and local elections. It provides for the use of the Federal Post Card Application (FPCA) or the Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot (FWAB). Its implementation acknowledged the distinct challenges that these individuals face and addressed them by standardizing the ability for these individuals to exercise voting rights while abroad.
Overseas voters protected by UOCAVA fall into the following categories:
“(5) "overseas voter" means—
(A) an absent uniformed services voter who, by reason of active duty or service is absent from the United States on the date of the election involved;
(B) a person who resides outside the United States and is qualified to vote in the last place in which the person was domiciled before leaving the United States; or
(C) a person who resides outside the United States and (but for such residence) would be qualified to vote in the last place in which the person was domiciled before leaving the United States.”
In order for a U.S. citizen residing overseas to request a ballot, the citizen must fill out and submit the FPCA, or a state specific overseas voting registration form. Once complete, this form must be submitted to the state in which the citizen wishes to vote, and the state (assuming information on the form is correct) will send a ballot to him/her/they who fulfils the voting registration requirements. In emergency situations (if one might not receive a state’s ballot in time to send it back by the deadline) eligible overseas citizens may use a FWAB to both register (in some states) and vote. On the FPCA and the FWAB, those with established residency and are qualified to vote in a state are entitled to use their address of last domicile to fill out these forms, even if they no longer live in the state nor have a permanent address.
The Problem
UOCAVA protects the right to vote only to those who are or would be “qualified to vote in the last place in which the person was domiciled before leaving the United States.” Therefore, the statute does not protect the right to vote in federal elections for those who did not once have a U.S. domicile, i.e. the Born Abroad U.S. citizens. In other words, the federal statute contains a “gap” and the states are not legally required to fill it. This is because states are in charge of voting, so where UOCAVA is silent, the individual states make their own rules.
Although 37 states (and the District of Columbia) have nevertheless filled this gap by allowing one to register to vote using a parent/legal guardian’s (or, in some cases, a spouse’s) last residential address, 13 states do not. Therefore, in these states, Born Abroad U.S. citizens do not have a valid legal residence address to use in order to fill out the FPCA, the FWAB or any other absentee ballot application or voter registration form, and therefore cannot vote in either federal or state elections.
The 13 States
The 13 states that do not allow the Born Abroad to vote are shown in purple below.
| Alabama | Arkansas | Florida | Idaho | Indiana | Louisiana | Maryland |
| Mississippi | Missouri | North Carolina | Pennsylvania | Texas | Wyoming |
The situation has been evolving these past years:
Recent expansion of voting rights: In 2023, New Jersey and Utah passed legislation in order to expand UOCAVA to protect the voting rights of their Born Abroad U.S. citizens, and Illinois, which had previously allowed only military dependents to vote, expanded its law to permit all Born Abroad to vote in federal elections.
Recent disenfranchisement: In 2025, the North Carolina Supreme court ruled that U.S. citizens who did not establish North Carolina residency were no longer eligible to vote in state and local elections and, in 2016, the North Carolina Superior Court ruled that these persons lost the right to “register and vote in any North Carolina election contest, including state or federal contests.”
The Number May Rise
As of this writing, six lawsuits have been recently brought by the Republican National Committee and others in Arizona, Colorado, Michigan, Nebraska, Nevada and Virginia, copying the North Carolina model and asking those courts to declare state legislation permitting the Born Abroad to vote as unconstitutional under the respective state’s constitution. Although the Michigan suit was recently dismissed, the others are still ongoing as of this writing. If successful, U.S. citizens born and raised abroad who did not establish “residence” in those states would be disenfranchised.
AARO’s Advocacy – Amend UOCAVA
Because they are U.S. citizens and have the obligations of such, it is normal to expect that these persons be guaranteed the right to vote in federal elections.
The Born Abroad must still file their federal tax declaration and their Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) each year and males over 18 must register for selective service. The Born Abroad have a host of other obligations and responsibilities as U.S. citizens. But these U.S. citizens are unable to exercise the basic civil right of voting. Their inability to vote in federal elections constitutes U.S. taxation without representation, which violates a fundamental basis upon which the United States was founded.
From the 14th and 15th Amendments asserting the voting rights of African Americans, to the 1920 adoption of the 19th amendment giving women the right to vote, to the Indian Citizenship Act (Snyder Act) establishing voting rights for American Indians and Alaskan Native Americans in 1924, to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and, finally the 1986 UOCAVA, enfranchising the Born Abroad is the last battle in defining American democracy.
Amending UOCAVA to include the Born Abroad appears to be the most effective course to pursue in order to provide uniform federal voting rights for all citizens.[8] AARO believes that either of the following two approaches could be proposed to resolve the problem:[9]
Either change section (5)(C) of UOCAVA as follows (suggested new language in bold):
(C) a person who resides outside the United States, who may or may not have established residency in the United States, and (but for such residence) would be qualified to vote in the last place in which the person or the person's U.S. citizen parent or legal guardian was domiciled before leaving the United States.
Or add a new section (5)(D) to UOCAVA:
(D): a person who resides outside the United States and has not established residency in the United States and (but for such residence) would be qualified to vote in the last place in which the person's U.S. citizen parent or legal guardian was domiciled before leaving the United States.
Federal election regulations for all overseas Americans should be consistent across all 50 states. Addressing this issue is essential to uphold a basic pillar of democracy in the U.S.: Voting.
Citations to certain statutes herein can be found in the Bibliography.
[1] Artemis Aburabi and Katelyn Mikysya, AARO 2024 interns, conducted initial research and worked on initial drafts of the 2024 version of this paper. (back to top)
[2] In 2009, the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act ("MOVE Act"), amended UOCAVA to establish new voter registration and absentee ballot procedures that states must follow in all federal elections. (back to top)
[3] U.S. citizens residing overseas who had established residence in a state, even with no intent or unclear intent to return, may vote in both federal and state elections in 31 states. In 19 states plus the District of Columbia these persons may vote only in federal elections – i.e., no “down ballot” voting. This is determined by state, not federal, law. (back to top)
[4] The FVAP uses the term “never resided” as well as “have never established residence.” (back to top)
[5] Although, as of this writing, the FVAP website also indicates 37 states, its list differs from the list in this paper because (i) the FVAP lists North Carolina as permitting the Born Abroad to vote, which they no longer can (per a 2026 court decision), and (ii) the FVAP’s list omits Utah, which our research shows permits the Born Abroad to vote, but only in federal elections. See endnote [7]. (back to top)
[6] The FVAP website lists New Hampshire as a state where the Born Abroad can vote for both federal and state offices. Our research shows that, under RSA 654:3 III, they can only vote for federal offices. (back to top)
[7] The FVAP website does not include Utah on its list of states permitting the Born Abroad to vote, but since 2023, pursuant to Utah Code § 20A-16-102(1)(d)(iii) they have been permitted to vote. Under Utah Code § 20A-16-103, they are limited to voting in federal elections. (back to top)
[8] AARO believes that a single, federal legislative approach would be more effective than trying an individual state-by state approach. A state-by-state approach would require two concurrent strategies: Advocacy for the enactment of state legislation in several states as well as the defense of litigation in several other states, for which AARO does not have the resources or capacity. Also, an advocacy state-legislative approach would likely not be successful due to the state constitutional approach taken by the Republican National Committee in the current lawsuits.
We understand that this federal legislative approach would only address federal voting rights and not the “down ballot” voting rights of the Born Abroad in the 13 states in which they are now disenfranchised, nor in the 10 states in which their right to vote in state elections is and would still be prohibited, nor the special case. These are matters of state law, which, as mentioned above, is beyond AARO’s resources and capacity to change. (back to top)
[9] The Democrats Abroad had advocated (unsuccessfully) several years ago for one of these proposals to be included in “The John Lewis Voting Rights Act of 2021.” Although either of these proposed clauses would be a good start to resolving the problem, AARO would support any other way to draft the legislation that would achieve the same goal. AARO engaged the American Bar Association on the issue, which issued Resolution 508 at its 2025 Annual Meeting calling for UOCAVA to be amended to include the Born Abroad. (back to top)
