How to Vote Abroad From Spain in U.S. Elections

LAST UPDATED OCTOBER 2012

Voting: it’s one of the fundamental rights of being an adult citizen of the United States. But just because you happen to be living abroad doesn’t mean you should be deprived of that right. In fact, it’s actually pretty easy to cast a vote for the candidate of your choice while overseas by requesting an absentee ballot. This is how to do it!

Oregon ballot
Vote Oregon! by Gary Jungling on Flickr

1) You request the ballot

Assuming you’re already registered to vote at your last place of residence back in the U.S., fill out the form called the Federal Post Card Application (FPCA) and send it to the official responsible for elections in your county. For example, the Texas Secretary of State’s website has a list of such personnel here. If you’re pressed for time, you can put your email address on the form and the election administrator/county clerk will email you your ballot for you to print off. You can even register and apply for the ballot before you leave the country; I drove to my county’s election office and handed the form in in person. VoteTexas.gov says you can even email your form!

2) You receive the ballot

Whether you receive it via snail mail, e-mail, or even fax, select the candidates you want to represent you (as long as they’re not running unopposed *cough*my U.S. House rep*cough*) and sign and seal everything. Methods of mailing can vary a little bit; I received my ballot via email and wasn’t sure whether to print the “envelope” page on a physical envelope, so I just made sure to sign on every line possible and stuffed all the pages into a single, taped-close envelope. I believe if you receive the ballot via regular mail it should come with security envelopes and such for you to seal, sign, and stuff into each other.

3) You send the ballot

Go to the local postal service where you live and send your envelope back to the States to the address for your county’s election administrator. Congratulations! You have officially voted from abroad.

Backup ballot

If you still haven’t received your ballot and there are less than thirty days before Election Day, you can send an emergency or backup ballot called the Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot (FWAB). Basically, you just write in the candidates you want and the offices they’re running for, or you can just vote a straight-party ticket and not worry about every individual race.

Deadlines

The deadline to send your FPCA is seven days before election day, and the deadline to send your ballot is five days after the election (not sure if it means out of your hands or received by the government). So get to it!

Resources

  • Federal Voting Assistance Program (the government’s website with all the forms you can think of)
  • Vote From Abroad (associated with Democrats Abroad, but provides services regardless of your party affiliation)
  • VoteTexas.gov (my state’s voting information website with a good overview of the overseas voting process)

What others are reading:

A Crash Course in the Galician Language

Image
Galicia, located in Spain’s northwestern corner, is  one of the country’s greatest regions. When I lived there from 2013 to 2015, I couldn’t get enough of the glorious, fresh food , the green, lush countryside, and the grand, granite architecture . But I could only take canned sardines with me back home, we’ve got enough humidity here in Texas, and sadly the oldest buildings in suburban Plano date back not to the 1070s but the 1970s. View this post on Instagram Okay, but really, y'all, where are the fairies??? This place has got some serious magic about it... // #flowers #spring #park #santiago #santiagodecompostela #galicia #spain #vsco #vscocam A post shared by Trevor Huxham (@trevorhuxham) on Mar 13, 2014 at 1:29pm PDT But what has stuck with me the most has been galego , the Galician language that I quickly picked up on after being immersed in it from day one at the elementary school I worked at. Clo
keep reading...

Is St. James Really Buried in Santiago de Compostela, Spain?

Image
As you head down a curve of the busy San Pedro street, you catch your first view of the twin bell towers of the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela—and you catch your breath. Petite hatchbacks rattle across the cobblestone as your feet seem drawn farther down the path, although that might just be gravity pulling you downhill toward the old zone. You cinch up your backpack’s sternum strap for the final approach of this multiple-night pilgrimage. For not the first time on your Camino, you lose your sense of direction as you enter Santiago’s old town: granite flagstones at your feet, stone-and-graying-plaster houses on either side, and overcast skies above disorient you—yet your eyes eventually lock on to a spray-painted yellow arrow on the side of a building. Once you’re back on autopilot, you start to reflect on why you started this crazy, 70-mile-plus hike in the first place. Rúa de San Pedro, Santiago de Compostela Maybe you hiked from Sarria farther inland as a cheap and hea
keep reading...

Mont-Saint-Michel, France: An Island Fortress in the English Channel

Image
After Paris and the Bayeux Tapestry , the third thing I wanted to see while traveling in France was Mont-Saint-Michel , a towering monastery built on top of a mountainous island off the coast of Normandy. Before visiting, I really didn’t know much at all about the Mount except that it was only accessible when the tides were out…and that it looked just plain cool. During the visit, I ended up learning a bit about French history and why the Mount is such a big deal for the French people. Mont-Saint-Michel It was by sheer luck, though, that I was able to visit Mont-Saint-Michel at all (pronounced “mohn san mee-shehl” [mɔ̃ sɛ̃ mi.ʃɛl]). The very day I had chosen to visit Mont-Saint-Michel was the first day in weeks  that the tourist bus was running between Saint-Malo (where my hostel was) and the Mount, with maybe one or two other runs more for December. I paid 20€ for the round-trip service but didn’t complain because this really freaky coincidence made the whole visit possible.
keep reading...