Pentagon drops 'never lived in US' option from overseas voter forms

Advocates say changes risk creating new voter confusion

The Pentagon has removed a checkbox that for more than a decade let overseas citizens identify as having never lived in the United States, a change voting advocates say could complicate registration for a narrow slice of the overseas electorate ahead of the November midterms. The revision, carried out by the Defense Department’s Federal Voting Assistance Program, came weeks before a Sept. 19 deadline for states to mail midterm ballots to overseas voters.

The Federal Voting Assistance Program, or FVAP, submitted “emergency” requests in late August to bypass the months-long process for revising federal election forms. The Pentagon said it had reassessed its interpretation of the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, the federal law that governs voting by service members and citizens abroad. Sean O’Keefe, the Pentagon’s deputy under secretary for personnel and readiness, wrote in a letter about the August requests that “it has recently come to our attention that the current format of these forms may confuse voters about the information they are required to provide under Federal law and their eligibility to use these forms to register and vote.”

The removed checkbox had appeared on the Federal Post Card Application and the Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot since 2013. Its removal leaves overseas citizens without an active-duty military connection only two options: a sworn declaration that they intend to return to the United States, or that they are uncertain about returning. But some U.S. citizens born abroad have never lived in the country at all.

Many states and the District of Columbia allow those “never-resided” citizens to vote if they have a relative who last resided in that state or territory before leaving the United States, including a parent or legal guardian serving in the military. Since 2024, Republican officials have filed lawsuits seeking to strip those citizens of that eligibility, arguing in court filings that state laws permitting never-resided voting violate state constitutions, that the voters are disproportionately registered as non-Republicans, and that allowing them to cast ballots hurts GOP chances of winning elections.

Republican court challenges have succeeded in North Carolina and been rebuffed twice in Michigan, while similar lawsuits continue in Arizona and at least five other states. The Republican National Committee has this year escalated legal fights against never-resided voting in Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey and Virginia.

Retired U.S. Navy Capt. Bob Carey, who led FVAP until departing in 2012, said he worked with state election officials and overseas voting advocates to add the never-resided checkbox to the federal forms when he ran the program. “I actually worked that regulation to change the form. But I didn’t want to do it right in the middle of the 2012 election, so I had it effective come 2013,” Carey said. “At the time, I was sort of saying to myself, ‘OK, this won’t make that big of a difference. I’ll add the block,’” Carey added. Carey now serves as executive director of the National Defense Committee, a veterans advocacy organization focused on voting and other civil rights.

The Pentagon has not specified what exactly prompted the reassessment of the form language. The forms now also include revised language about voter identification, though it remains unclear what prompted the Pentagon to reassess the broader set of revisions. Days after a White House agency approved the requests, FVAP said on social media that the forms “have been updated,” but the Pentagon did not open a public comment period on each form until more than a week later. Guidance for state election officials was not posted on FVAP’s website until about a month after the forms changed. In a statement, the Pentagon said FVAP has also directly notified election officials and voters by email, though it provided no additional details.

Some military and overseas voting advocates say the Pentagon should do more outreach in the middle of voting season for the midterm elections. “If I was the under secretary of defense for personnel readiness, to which FVAP reports, or the secretary of defense, I’d be calling up the [FVAP] director and saying, ‘Spam the crap out of everyone,’” Carey said.

For now, eligible never-resided voters can continue to register and request ballots through any alternative ways provided by the state or territory where they are eligible to vote. FVAP said in a statement that state election officials can continue processing previous versions of the forms. The Pentagon added that “states administer elections and can process any form or application that provides the information required to verify a voter’s eligibility to vote in their jurisdiction.”

Sarah Streyder, executive director of Secure Families Initiative, which advocates for military families and challenged President Trump’s failed push for mail-in voting restrictions for the midterms, said she was troubled by the lack of transparency around the Pentagon’s process for changing the forms. “What were the voices prompting this change? Where did this come from? Military families are stakeholders who should have been included, because we can speak most authoritatively on what truly causes confusion with these forms and what doesn’t,” Streyder said. “That’s our form you’re messing with. And you didn’t even ask us for the input. It’s just very insulting.”

Susan Dzieduszycka-Suinat, president and CEO of the U.S. Vote Foundation, said she expected the new form to produce more confusion, not less. “I definitely believe that the new version of the form will create far more confusion than we ever encountered with any previous version,” Dzieduszycka-Suinat said. “The law hasn’t changed. States still run this program the way Congress wrote it. However, the fact that it’s being presented differently at the federal level within this 90-day window [before Election Day] — it doesn’t give the states time to implement it, to train their people, to inform voters, to change instructions or any of it.”

The form changes come shortly after the Republican National Committee ramped up its legal fight against state laws permitting never-resided voting in Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey and Virginia, Dzieduszycka-Suinat noted. “It’s hard to ignore the fact that a spotlight has been shown onto this particular slice of voters,” she said. “And it’s very concerning that they’ve simply been wiped off the form without discussion.”

The Pentagon said in a statement that the changes were made to “eliminate voter confusion.”