united-states immigration citizenship voting
Can someone who primarily lives abroad vote in America if they happen to be a citizen?
<p>An acquintance of mine is in an interesting situation.  This person is a student in America, but their primary residence, personal upbringing, and national identity belong to another country.  However, <strong>they happen to be an American citizen because they were physically born here</strong>.</p>

<p>Assuming I have my facts straight, this means that a lot of complications that normally surround immigration to America are not relevant to this person.  <strong>Does this include voting?</strong>  Can this person register to vote (and then do so) with no more stringent a process than full-time Americans would go through?  If this person were to  leave America after they graduate (but maintain their citizenship), from which address could they maintain voter registration?</p>

<p>Yes, so long as you are still a US citizen, it does not matter if you no longer maintain residence in the United States. If you no longer have any sort of residence that can be claimed as a current residence, you simply register at whatever the last residence you used was when you lived in the United States (even if someone else lives there now). You would then have an absentee ballot mailed to you overseas.</p>

<p>However, if you don't maintain any sort of residence in the United States, you will <strong>only</strong> be eligible to vote for federal offices (president, senate, house). You won't be allowed to vote in state or local elections.</p>

<p>The keywords you'll need for voting are:</p>

<ul>
<li>UOCAVA, which is a program that allows for easier voting overseas (in some cases the ballot can actually be emailed to you and you are only responsible for printing it out, filling it out, and mailing it back).</li>
<li>FPCA, which is the form you fill out. It actually doubles as a registration <em>and</em> an absentee ballot request, so you only have to fill out one form. The absentee request is good for all elections in the calendar year it is submitted, so you only have to fill it out once for both the primary and the general.</li>
</ul>
