Getting tired of 2020? 투표하다! (VOTE!)

Many of you have expressed concern about whether Peter and I will be voting absentee this November. The short answer – yes!

Of course, as we quickly have discovered, few enterprises are simple when trying to accomplish them from overseas quarantine. While possible to request a ballot, it was not quite as easy as I expected. It required perseverance and a little technical skill.

Peter had easily requested an absentee ballot in the U.S. before we left for Korea, but then we discovered that there is a different procedure for having a ballot sent to an overseas address.

Lots of googling for information led me to two helpful resources: The Federal Voting Assistance Program and Votes PA.

Both websites directed me to download and complete the Federal Post Card Application (FPCA), which is available to overseas military personnel and U.S. civilian voters.

The FPCA form itself is simple. Along with plenty of identifying information, I provided my last PA address, my U.S. forwarding address, and my current address in Seoul, as well as my phone number and email address. I was able to check a box requesting to receive my absentee ballot by email.

There were a few complications, though admittedly a very tech-savvy person might have had more luck. A less tech-savvy person might have been up a creek, although most issues would be resolve-able outside of a quarantine situation. Rather than wait to be done with quarantine, I waded in!

Headaches while filling out FPCA

1. I lost the information in the form about 4 different times before I figured out what I was doing wrong. (My computer was auto-opening a non-editable version of the PDF.)
2. The form would not allow insertion of an electronic signature. We finally figured out I had to save the form, re-open it in a PDF viewer (not editor), and “print” it to save as a PDF. Then I could insert my electronic signature. Note: not a problem if you have access to a printer, which currently we do not.
3. I began seeing references to a required “Transmission Cover Sheet” that needed to be emailed with the application. I didn’t easily find any links to the form. (And why does an email need a transmission cover sheet?) Anyway, finally I googled it and found it in another section of FVAP.gov. It wasn’t easy to edit, but eventually I was able to do it with Adobe.

Sending the ballot request

This part was easy! Contact information for each local election office can be found at FVAP.gov. On August 9, I emailed my materials to phillyelection@phila.gov.

I admit I felt a little skeptical about whether this process would actually work, but later on August 9 I received an email from the Philadelphia County Board of Elections confirming receipt of my application. On August 10 (EST), I received an email saying my application was approved and that a ballot would be mailed to me in September or October.

It remains to be seen whether the ballot will be mailed to me, or emailed as I requested. This only matters because of timing. Absentee ballots have to signed and sent by midnight on the day before the election. (In this case, November 2 at 11:59pm.) Ballots must be received by 5pm on the 7th day after the election.

If our ballots aren’t sent to us in September, it might be difficult for us to mail them so that they are received on time. However, there is a procedure for this, too. If we don’t receive our absentee ballots in September, we can fill out the Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot (FWAB), which is an emergency back-up ballot, and mail it instead. It is only counted if our initial absentee ballot fails to arrive in time to be counted. This is also what Peter will do if we can’t figure out how to re-request that his absentee ballot be sent to Seoul. We’ll keep you posted!

The federal guidelines are very clear that only one absentee ballot per person will be counted. Even if we receive regular absentee ballots and also fill out the FWAB, it is not possible for us to vote twice. Just as you cannot vote at your polling place twice because your name has already been checked off a list, when our first ballot is received we will be recorded as having voted. Filling out a second ballot would not mean our votes would be counted twice.

I also hope I’ve been clear that completing this process (though admittedly mostly complicated by the confines of quarantine) took significant time and patience, and that’s before we’ve even voted! It worries me less that someone could vote twice and more that U.S. citizens living overseas with less time and fewer resources might not bother to request a ballot.

Wherever you are, please register and VOTE! It’s our right and our responsibility.

“My vote is my voice… and the voice of all who struggled, so that I may have my voice.”

Lydia C. Obasi.