7-10 million Americans live abroad

Virginia has issue with some overseas ballots Well…duh.

I realized while writing this post that I need to start with a glossary:

FWAB: Federal Write In Absentee Ballot. The FWAB is essentially an emergency ballot. It’s used when overseas voters do not receive their official state absentee ballots in time to get their ballots returned to the States. More information about the FWAB is available on our Voting Action Center at “What is the FWAB?” (Written by yours truly, after getting so many questions about the FWAB I thought my inbox would explode)

FPCA: The Federal Post Card Application. It’s a special form overseas voters can use to register to vote and request their ballot, all in one shot.

The CNN article above outlines just one of the problems overseas absentee voters face in Virginia. In most, if not all states, if you haven’t requested an official state absentee ballot, you can’t send in the FWAB – it won’t count. In Virginia, though, if you haven’t sent in your FPCA to request your ballot, you can also use the FWAB as an application to request your absentee ballot. However, if you’re using your FWAB as your ballot and as your application for an absentee ballot, your witness needs to provide their address. But does either the FWAB itself or the instructions say that Virginia requires the witness’s address?

Of course not. (Thankfully, Demcorats Abroad is on the ball. Just check out Virginia in “State Specific Updates.”)

But oh, it gets better. The Fairfax County Registrar is not counting ballots that arrive without the witness’s address. The Arlington County Registrar hasn’t received any ballots that are missing the address, but if she did, she would count them. 

Is that not the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever heard? Well, okay, Texas still takes the cake for me, but this is close.

Virginia, by the way, is also the only state that explicitly disenfranchises U.S. citizens born abroad to parents from Virginia. Right in the VA state constitution, it says if you’ve never lived in Virginia, you can’t vote there. So children born overseas, who have never lived in the U.S. (and therefore obviously never lived in Virginia), but who are American citizens, mind you – can’t vote if their parents are from VA. And of course, no other state will take them, why would they? Right to vote? Bah humbug!