Joint Statement Opposing the PROVE Act

August 13, 2025

We, the undersigned organizations — U.S. Vote Foundation and its Overseas Vote initiative, the Association of Americans Resident Overseas, American Citizens Abroad, and FAWCO — represent decades of leadership in protecting and facilitating the right to vote for U.S. citizens living overseas. Together, we have worked in partnership with Congress, state election officials, and the Department of Defense to ensure that the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), enacted in 1986 with overwhelming bipartisan support, fulfills its mission: to make voting from abroad possible, secure, and accessible for millions of American citizens.

We are united in our strong opposition to the Proving Residency for Overseas Voter Eligibility Act, H.R. 4851 (“PROVE Act”). If enacted, it would disenfranchise non-military Americans living overseas by imposing an arbitrary and unworkable new “evidence of recent residence” requirement that has no basis in law, necessity, or election security.

The PROVE Act purports to “fix” something that is not broken. For nearly 40 years, UOCAVA has provided a clear, verifiable process for establishing a voter’s eligibility using their U.S. identification number together with their U.S. voting residence address (their last U.S. residence) — which has been used in all 50 states and territories without issue. This process already includes identity verification. In all this time, there has never been credible evidence of wrongdoing in overseas voting.

The bill demands a “verifiable mailing address” of a “current residence” in the United States for non-military overseas voters — a condition that is not only irrelevant to determining U.S. citizenship and voting eligibility, but impossible for most to meet. 

• Many overseas voters — students, missionaries, aid workers, corporate workers, State Department employees, retirees, and long-term expatriates — do not, cannot and should not be required to maintain two residences in two countries simply to vote.
   
• The Act’s exceptions (for those with a spouse, parent, or legal guardian currently residing in the U.S.) are ridiculous, arbitrary and discriminatory. Under such rules, a voter could lose their right to vote upon the death of a parent, or gain it back if an estranged spouse moved to the U.S. These scenarios, as well as the arbitrary declaration that those who no longer have a U.S. address would be deemed residents of Washington DC, are absurd on their face.

Many US citizens overseas do not vote because they feel that they are forgotten by Congress and not well represented. Voting gives these citizens a voice in their government and in the legislation that affects them just like their compatriots in the U.S.  The PROVE Act would create barriers that voters and local election officials alike could not reasonably overcome. With more than 7,500 local election offices already managing overseas ballots successfully under existing law, this bill would add unnecessary complexity and unfunded costs without improving security.

U.S. citizens abroad are a vital part of the American fabric. They include State Department employees and U.S. diplomats, business leaders advancing U.S. interests, teachers, doctors, engineers, missionaries, aid workers, and students acquiring skills to bring back home, to name a few. They are unofficial U.S. ambassadors representing American values in every corner of the globe. Their voices strengthen our democracy and deserve to be heard — not silenced. Most importantly, the Supreme Court has long recognized that the right to vote is one of the most fundamental rights of citizenship.

We call on Congress to reject the PROVE Act outright. It is unnecessary, addressing a non-existent problem in addition to being unworkable and making it impossible for many eligible voters to comply. In sum, we consider the PROVE Act to be downright un-American.  It undermines the principle that citizenship, not property or address, is the basis for voting rights in federal elections.

UOCAVA has been a model of bipartisan cooperation and election integrity for nearly four decades. Any changes to it must be grounded in evidence, developed in consultation with overseas voting experts, and designed to expand participation — not suppress it.

The PROVE Act fails every one of those tests.

Signed,

U.S. Vote Foundation and Overseas Vote
 
Association of Americans Resident Overseas

American Citizens Abroad

FAWCO

LEADERS RESPOND TO THE PROVE ACT

Susan Dzieduszycka-Suinat, President & CEO, U.S. Vote Foundation and Overseas Vote:
“For two decades, we’ve built civic technology and services that make voting from abroad possible. The PROVE Act ignores all evidence, all expertise, and the lived reality of Americans abroad. It would take one of the best-functioning, most secure election programs in the country — and sabotage it.”
https://www.usvotefoundation.org/ | https://www.overseasvotefoundation.org/
 

Doris L. Speer, President, Association of Americans Resident Overseas:
“The right to vote is one of the most fundamental rights of U.S. citizenship and AARO has worked hard for more than five decades to preserve that right.  UOCAVA, passed on a non-partisan basis, has been the foundation upon which overseas Americans have voted for almost 40 years, and the PROVE Act would decimate these rights.”
https://aaro.org/
 

Marylouise Serrato, Executive Director, American Citizens Abroad:
“In 1986, Congress united across party lines to pass UOCAVA. It was a point of national pride. This bill is the opposite — a step backward into arbitrary restrictions and needless complexity. Voting access for US citizens overseas was one of the founding issues of ACA and we are committed to preserving the right to vote from overseas for our community.”
https://www.americansabroad.org/

Coalition Statements

“This is a naked attempt to silence a segment of the American electorate that is already underrepresented. Overseas voting is complex enough without invented barriers. There is no justification for this bill.”

“Overseas voters deserve the full support of Congress in facilitating the voting process. The security-related premises underlying this Bill are wholly unsupported by the record, and its enactment will create impediments to voting without impact on voting security.”

Media Release: Voting Leaders Condemn Bill that Would Gut UOCAVA Protections