Military Voter Questions, Answered
by Lizann Lightfoot - October 1st, 2021
When military families move, there is a lot of tedious paperwork to complete. One item you may not think about is your voter registration. Yes, you have to update your voting address after you move. But do you vote in your new state or the old one? Do you vote at local precincts or vote by mail? The answers can be complicated. So we interviewed Sarah Streyder of Secure Families Initiative (SFI) to get the details on military voter registration for service members and their families.
Streyder, an Air Force spouse, wants all service members and spouses to know their rights as voters. She founded SFI as “a non-partisan nonprofit whose goal is to mobilize military partners and family members to vote and advocate for issues that impact them.”
Where to vote
The most common military voter question is, “where should I vote?” To answer this, Streyder refers to the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP), which is the DoD agency in charge of voting questions. Their guidance is to connect your voting residence with your state of residence.
Streyder explains, “If you are new to the military, your residence is your Home of Record. If you are a spouse, there is legislation called MSSRA that allows you to adopt your service member’s home of record, even if you have never lived there.”
After moving, a service member or spouse may choose to change their state of residency to their new duty station, but they don’t have to. Some states have easy residency requirements, and you may change your residence every time you move if you wish. Or you can leave your state of residence as your original state while living at several different duty stations. So ultimately, it is a personal decision where you maintain official residence and voting status.
Streyder says the important thing is to remember that every PCS move should prompt a change or adjustment to your voter registration. “Any time something changes, including the address where you are currently living and receive mail, you should always update your voter registration in one of two ways:
If you change your residency, update your voter registration for the new state.
If you won’t change your residency, update the address where your absentee ballot will get sent.”
How a military voter registers
There are two options for filing voter registration paperwork. If you are a local voter, you can use the regular civilian website for your new state and click “Register to Vote” to update the address. Streyder says this option works for military families who “are registering for the first time or changing your registration, and the place where you vote is the same as the place where you live. Some states let you do it completely online, whereas others have you mail in paperwork.”
If you are voting somewhere different from your current physical address, then you are considered an absentee voter, and everything is centralized throughout the FPCA (Federal Post Card Application.) According to Streyder, “this is a form any long-distance military voter can use if they are voting somewhere else besides where they currently live. You can register to vote and request your absentee ballot all at once on the same form. Go to FVAP.gov and find the FPCA there. Depending on your state, some require it to be mailed, and other states allow an electronic submission. The site will tell you how to submit based on your state.”
The process is essentially the same for military voters stationed overseas. One difference, Streyder says, is “that things take longer overseas, so be sure to calculate for mail delivery time. You can either use the U.S. Post Office on base, go to a U.S. Embassy, or use an in-country post office and pay international mailing fees.”
PCS moves affect military voters
When you have PCS orders, you can’t change your voter registration address until you have a physical address in the new destination. You don’t have to live there yet, but you need the address of your housing, whether that is on base or off base. If you are requesting an absentee ballot, you can also use a P.O. box, the service member’s office address, or even a local family member who can receive your absentee ballot for you. There is no limit to how many times you change your address, so you can change multiple times in a year.
Many people don’t think about their voter registration information when they PCS, especially if it is not a Presidential election year. But Streyer says it is important for military families to update their registration EVERY year. This is because:
local elections happen every year
emergency or run-off elections can happen any time
some state can purge military voters annually
Streyder explains, “Everyone who is an absentee military voter should update their registration every year. States are obligated to honor the FPCA registration for one year, but some states that purge voter roles are allowed to purge military votes after that first year.”
Can all military voters vote by mail?
According to Streyder, the majority of military voters rely on vote-by-mail to cast their vote. However, although absentee voting and vote by mail are very similar, the terms are technically different. “Absentee voting is any voting done away from the voting place. If you send in your absentee ballot by email, you haven’t used the mail. But typically, absentee voting means voting by mail. If you are a local voter, then whether you vote by mail depends on the local state laws. 31 states allow some type of electronic voting. The others all allow voting by mail.”
Streyder emphasises, “Military families can always vote absentee. You always have the right to vote there despite not being local. There is great legislation defending that right. Also, every absentee voter can opt to receive your blank ballot by email instead of waiting for it to be mailed to you.”
If you have recently moved to a new state, you always have the option to register as a local voter and vote in your new jurisdiction, but Streyder warns families to be careful about that decision “because there can be tax implications tied to changing your voting registration and your state of residency.” And don’t wait until a local election day to determine your residency! Despite talk of ‘same-day registration’ during the 2020 Presidential election, Streyder says, “very few states would allow you to register at the polling place. Most states have requirements to register ahead of time.”
Updating your voter registration may not be the biggest item on your PCS checklist, but it is still an important task for military families. You already have the right to vote. Completing voter paperwork is something that’s easy to do and can help you feel good after a PCS move.
Lizann Lightfoot, the "Seasoned Spouse" is a professional writer and speaker for the military community. After two decades with her service member, her family has been through 7 deployments and 6 PCS moves. Lizann has raised 5 children and published several books for military families. Her most recent book is "Open When: Letters of Encouragement for Military Spouses" published Sept 2021 by Elva Resa. You can find Lizann's articles and resources at SeasonedSpouse.com
