The Pentagon Is Right on Overseas Voting. Now Congress Must Finish the Job

A federal agency does not get to rewrite election law because someone in Washington finds the law inconvenient. It does not get to expand its authority through a form, a website, or years of bureaucratic practice. And it does not get to treat the rules that govern American elections as optional.

That is why I support the Pentagon’s move to restore the statutory boundaries of the federal program that assists military and overseas voters. President Trump’s administration is forcing the bureaucracy to follow the law Congress actually passed. That is what the American people voted for.

An administrative correction is still not enough. Congress has to finish the job.

The Federal Voting Assistance Program issued an August policy paper concluding that U.S. citizens born abroad who have never resided in the United States do not qualify for assistance under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, known as UOCAVA. The policy correctly draws a line between eligibility for federal assistance and voting eligibility that exists separately under state law.

These individuals are American citizens. The question is where they are legally entitled to vote and whether the federal government has been running this program outside the limits Congress set. Citizenship alone does not settle eligibility. Residency and the requirements written into law matter.

The federal statute defines civilian overseas voters by the last place they were domiciled before leaving the United States. That language creates a real connection between a voter and an American jurisdiction. Federal officials should enforce it, not stretch it to cover situations Congress never included.

I have treated election integrity as non-negotiable since I got to Congress. Anyone familiar with my journey to Congress can understand why. Without secure elections, we do not have a Republic. That is why I introduced the Proving Residency for Overseas Voter Eligibility Act or the PROVE Act. It would require nonmilitary overseas citizens to show a current state residency connection through themselves, their spouse, parent, or legal guardian. Those who cannot would still be able to vote a federal ballot through the District of Columbia. I have also pushed related reforms through the Armed Services Committee because the American people are done with fuzzy rules and bureaucrats deciding what the law means.

The principle is common sense: a vote counted in a state should rest on a verifiable connection to that state.

As an Army veteran who served overseas, I take military voting rights seriously. Americans serving our country should have every lawful opportunity to cast a ballot. Military families and eligible civilian voters abroad deserve the protections Congress already provided — advance ballot transmission, electronic access to certain materials, and the federal write-in absentee ballot under the conditions the law sets. Those protections must be enforced for the people who actually qualify.

Protecting eligible voters and enforcing real eligibility rules are not in conflict. They are the bare minimum if we intend to keep this country. Election security is national security. Clear rules and real accountability are how we save our elections and save America.

Too often, any call for election safeguards is dismissed as voter suppression before anyone bothers to read the statute. That dodge avoids the only question that matters: Are officials administering elections according to the rules, or according to the rules they wish existed?

The Pentagon’s policy does not automatically overturn state laws that separately allow certain never-resided citizens to vote. Those questions have to be resolved through the proper legislative and judicial processes.

The Trump administration has taken a necessary step. Now Congress needs to pass the PROVE Act and put stronger, verifiable residency requirements into law.

Protect every eligible voter. Enforce every applicable safeguard. Make Washington follow the election laws it expects everyone else to obey. That is America First. That is how we take the system back for the American people instead of leaving it with the permanent bureaucracy.

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