Maybe controversial opinion, if you don't care enough to come back to the country to vote, you don't care enough about the country for your vote to be given a shit about.
Like, I get working abroad sometimes might not be fully optional in certain careers but that's just how it is.
We know of course that's just a front for soliciting actual foreigners to vote, but the front shouldn't even be considered valid.
Just like mail in voting should be banned (exception: active duty military when you're deployed, for what should be obvious reasons), this should be too.
I would also extend an olive branch to people who work on planes and ships. Also for some scientists, like biologists, geologists and hydrologists, who might be conducting long term research projects abroad.
I don't think that's fair for people who, as you say, work abroad typically; or people who are military personelle and are deployed elsewhere.
I'm willing to concede that if you spend more than 50% of your time abroad or more, maybe you relinquish your voting rights in local elections and the like, but I'm not so sure that's a valid argument for state or federal elections.
The issue is about what your real investment is in your community. Locally, you're losing your investment locally. But if we're voting in federal elections (especially if the government is forcing you to go somewhere), I don't think that's valid.
I think if you are military personnel you are likely on something I'd consider American location, whether base or ship, which has direct line to America through government channels. I'd say that is a fine exception.
Anything else however, I don't think deserves to be given the risk nor extra effort.
I think I would be more comfortable with that argument if we had a National Voting Day holiday where people could more clearly take off from work and get travel and board back to the US much more easily. I feel like political parties would probably pay people to fly back in some cases, the same way they bus church groups to voting booths.
I'd be willing to compromise in that regard. Honestly, the government takes off 900 holidays a year and leaves us holding the bag, I think we should have the right to make them work extra hard a few days a year while the rest of us get elections off.
But that would also require full compliance with National Holidays, unlike now where all the poor jobs don't get shit off for half of them. Otherwise its still discrimination against the poor.
You're still tax chattel when abroad and I don't think it's easy to just take a flight right back home for one day of the year to vote. If you want to strip that right from expats, then they shouldn't have to pay Federal taxes. If that doesn't matter, then I would say being camped in an American squatting zone on foreign soil shouldn't count either.
Why should they? They don't live in Federal territory, what are they paying for? The privilege of keeping their citizenship card? I doubt half of Congress is paying Israeli Taxes for theirs.
I think voting should be required by law to be in person with very, very few exceptions, and those being extraordinarily controlled and regulated to protect against fraud.
There is an interesting idea here though: if even one of your parents was a US citizen, the United States considers you a citizen even if you were born abroad, never entered the country, and don't even speak English. They expect you to file US income taxes and pay them unless you go through the renunciation process. Thus, purely by accident of birth, the US asserts that it has complete control over you as it would any "real" US citizen.
Given the US government's stance, it's only logical that they would be required to afford you all the rights of a citizen as well, including the right to vote. I'm genuinely curious how they would administer this, since voting is all done at the local level, and you don't have a state, county, or city to claim residence in if you've never even entered the country.
Maybe controversial opinion, if you don't care enough to come back to the country to vote, you don't care enough about the country for your vote to be given a shit about.
Like, I get working abroad sometimes might not be fully optional in certain careers but that's just how it is.
We know of course that's just a front for soliciting actual foreigners to vote, but the front shouldn't even be considered valid.
Just like mail in voting should be banned (exception: active duty military when you're deployed, for what should be obvious reasons), this should be too.
Absentee ballots worked fine until the pandemic happened.
thats what they want you to think.
I would also extend an olive branch to people who work on planes and ships. Also for some scientists, like biologists, geologists and hydrologists, who might be conducting long term research projects abroad.
I don't think that's fair for people who, as you say, work abroad typically; or people who are military personelle and are deployed elsewhere.
I'm willing to concede that if you spend more than 50% of your time abroad or more, maybe you relinquish your voting rights in local elections and the like, but I'm not so sure that's a valid argument for state or federal elections.
The issue is about what your real investment is in your community. Locally, you're losing your investment locally. But if we're voting in federal elections (especially if the government is forcing you to go somewhere), I don't think that's valid.
I think if you are military personnel you are likely on something I'd consider American location, whether base or ship, which has direct line to America through government channels. I'd say that is a fine exception.
Anything else however, I don't think deserves to be given the risk nor extra effort.
I think I would be more comfortable with that argument if we had a National Voting Day holiday where people could more clearly take off from work and get travel and board back to the US much more easily. I feel like political parties would probably pay people to fly back in some cases, the same way they bus church groups to voting booths.
Most places have weeks of early voting. This argument is fake and gay
Well, also consider I would ban early voting.
I'd be willing to compromise in that regard. Honestly, the government takes off 900 holidays a year and leaves us holding the bag, I think we should have the right to make them work extra hard a few days a year while the rest of us get elections off.
But that would also require full compliance with National Holidays, unlike now where all the poor jobs don't get shit off for half of them. Otherwise its still discrimination against the poor.
You're still tax chattel when abroad and I don't think it's easy to just take a flight right back home for one day of the year to vote. If you want to strip that right from expats, then they shouldn't have to pay Federal taxes. If that doesn't matter, then I would say being camped in an American squatting zone on foreign soil shouldn't count either.
Why should they? They don't live in Federal territory, what are they paying for? The privilege of keeping their citizenship card? I doubt half of Congress is paying Israeli Taxes for theirs.
I think voting should be required by law to be in person with very, very few exceptions, and those being extraordinarily controlled and regulated to protect against fraud.
There is an interesting idea here though: if even one of your parents was a US citizen, the United States considers you a citizen even if you were born abroad, never entered the country, and don't even speak English. They expect you to file US income taxes and pay them unless you go through the renunciation process. Thus, purely by accident of birth, the US asserts that it has complete control over you as it would any "real" US citizen.
Given the US government's stance, it's only logical that they would be required to afford you all the rights of a citizen as well, including the right to vote. I'm genuinely curious how they would administer this, since voting is all done at the local level, and you don't have a state, county, or city to claim residence in if you've never even entered the country.
There is no justification for non-citizens to ever vote in any election, in any nation, under any circumstance.
if you are not on american soil or actively deployed, your vote should not matter at all.
X/Twitter: https://x.com/BehizyTweets/status/1837626529515180517
Nitter: https://nitter.poast.org/BehizyTweets/status/1837626529515180517
Really makes you wish we had a viable opposition party here in the United States instead of the feckless GOP we're stuck with.
I think Israelis should get to vote in our elections before aussies