Happy New Year! Register to Vote
Happy 2022! May this year be better than the last… and the one before that. If you are an American living abroad, this is your friendly reminder that you must register to vote EVERY SINGLE YEAR, and now is the time to do it.
Every state has a different way of doing things. Some make it quite easy to electronically request and submit everything. Some insist on snail mail. Some have a weird combination of email, snail mail, and fax, and it is essential to follow all of the rules specific to your jurisdiction - the place where you last lived in the US no matter if you intend to return there or not. This is made even more confusing by the different dates in each state for registration, requesting a ballot, and submitting a ballot. Another “gotcha” that some states have is that ballots must be received by a certain date - not postmarked by a certain date. For those of us in places like New Zealand where mail is creeping in and out, it means we we need to mail things in a soon as humanly possible.
No matter where you fall on the political spectrum, please take a few minutes to figure out what is appropriate for you and register to vote. Mid term elections matter, and Happy New Year!
Registration, ballot, and election information for Texas.
There are a number of resources that I post every year to help people find the appropriate information for voting from abroad:
Federal Voting Assistance Program - FVAP.gov
Vote From Abroad - VotefromAbroad.org
Also, there are resources for expats if you want to be politically active in the US from overseas.
Democrats Abroad - https://www.democratsabroad.org/nz
There is a moderately active group primarily based in Auckland.
Republicans Overseas - https://republicansoverseas.com/
The closest group appears to be in Sydney.
