Can I Vote if I’m an American Citizen Born Overseas and Never Resided in the US?

Yes, I am a citizen of America and Germany. I was born in Germany and I’ve never lived in the United States. My mother is from the U.S.
 
My mom votes in Oregon, where her last U.S. residence is, with my grandmother. I inherited my voting residence – where I vote – from my mom.

Yes, I have.

I think it’s really important to vote. My mother is only an American citizen and she does not want to give up her US citizenship in order to become a naturalized German citizen. I grew up seeing her not being able to vote locally in Germany. At the same time, she is very passionate about voting and believes it’s vital that everyone who has the right to vote actually votes. So I’ve absorbed all that from her.

Honestly, I always knew I would be able to vote in America because my mom told me that when I was growing up. In the 2020 presidential elections, I actually was with her when she cast her ballot in the primaries. When it was time for me to register as an overseas voter, my mom helped me with that as well.

I participate in all elections that I can. I have a ballot on my desk right now for the Oregon municipal elections, county level. So I vote in every election that I can. And with Oregon it’s also easy, because they always send me a ballot and then I know that I should vote.
 
Oregon does all mail elections anyway, so I never have to request an absentee ballot and neither do any Oregon residents.*  I’ve only been registered to vote for about three years now, and they continue to send me a ballot automatically for every election. The county clerk knows us; she knows my grandmother personally. I don’t know for sure, but I assume we are some of the very few overseas voters in that county. We have an election official who really cares.

I have not, but I do know of other overseas Americans who have. I feel like Oregon does a really good job. It seems like people who vote from abroad in other states tend to encounter more problems.

I tend to talk to my grandmother about that since she lives there and she knows.  My grandmother and I tend to agree on things. I’m informed on the issues and have strong feelings about them. I spent a lot of time there, even though I never technically lived there.

I use the last address that my mother had in the U.S. and that is my grandmother’s current address.

It arrives by mail. We’ve also never had an issue with the ballot being too late;  it’s always been on time. I can actually return my ballot by email or fax. And I get an email back from the election official who sends me a brief note to say the ballot has been received.

I’ve actually never checked on that. I’m assuming that my ballot has always been counted. I get a full ballot. It’s a bit interesting also because when I send it back via email, I’m supposed to scan the ballot front and back, but it is a U.S. paper size, so it doesn’t quite fit on the printer. So I just try to align it so the important parts are still in the scan.

Well, my major is American Studies so, I mostly speak English here actually, and most of the media I consume, like movies, series and books, all tend to be English. So it’s interesting because it also goes back and forth. I was in the U.S. two weeks ago for two and a half weeks with my family, and then also to visit relatives in the U.S. 

It was a weird experience because I hadn’t been in the U.S. since COVID. I definitely care about the U.S. and I care about participating in the political process in the U.S. It’s just a bit strange now because I feel like a lot of things have changed.

Well, this is not supposed to be an ad for US Vote, but in the current election, regarding my ballot, I was really confused about when I would have to send it back, so I did actually use US Vote to look up the deadline. So I would absolutely use the U.S. Vote Foundation website. And if I met another overseas voter, I would tell them to look to you.