Absentee Ballot Request for US-based and Overseas Voters Abroad, Election Dates / Deadlines, and How to Vote in your State

When you go to your polling place to elect a President every four years, you might think you're voting directly for the candidate you choose, but that's not how the election of Presidents works. Your vote actually helps select your state's electors.

This is a group of people chosen to cast the official votes for President and Vice President on your state's behalf. This body of electors, 538 in total, is known as the Electoral College.

The Electoral College was established for two reasons: 1) as a way to mitigate the dominance of the larger states, and 2) because the framers did not trust voters to make an educated decision when voting for the President.

U.S. Vote Foundation joined fellow plaintiffs in seeking a preliminary injunction against an executive order that threatens mail-in voting for millions of Americans, especially those serving and living abroad.

UPDATE — Aug. 12, 2026: We won. The court has granted the preliminary injunction, blocking this executive order nationwide ahead of the November midterms. Read the full ruling and our statement.

For the constituents we serve, which include overseas citizens, U.S. service members, and their families stationed abroad, voting by mail is not a convenience. It is the only way they can participate in our democracy.

Redistricting is a way to redraw the boundary lines of a voting jurisdiction based on population size, while gerrymandering is a way to manipulate these boundaries in order to provide an advantage to one political party over another. Interestingly enough, there are basically no federal laws against gerrymandering and it’s left up to the states to legislate the process.

These days with advances in technology, it’s easier than ever to redraw districts exactly in a way that controls outcomes and political factions attempt to do this every year. Gerrymandering has a number of negative effects on voters, but luckily there are numerous things that can be done to combat the process.