Law Professor Brian Kalt of Michigan State University has this interesting essay, saying Article One does not permit U.S. citizens living permanently overseas to vote for federal office. Article One of the U.S. Constitution says, “section 2. The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several states.” Similar provisions in other parts of the Constitution relate to U.S. Senate and presidential elections.
Ever since 1986, a federal law has required the states to let citizens who live permanently overseas to register to vote, in the state in which they last lived before leaving the U.S.
I suppose “the people of the several states” would be interpreted to refer to the citizens of the states, in which case a US citizen living outside the US should be able to vote so long as he or she maintains their citizenship with one of the constituent states of the USA. Most people don’t realize that in addition to their federal citizenship, the individual states also confer citizenship, though this is usually construed to the definition of domicile (as it is for purposes of personal jurisdiction).
How many USA govt diplomats, military, etc. living *permanently* OUT of the USA having ANY ALLEGIANCE to a State regime in the USA ???
More and more USA const amdts needed to cover ALL possibilities ???
History note – absentee ballots got going big time during the horrific 1861-1865 Civil War — northern army/navy forces in thousands of battles against the EVIL forces of slavery (aka Confederates).
i.e. lots of Union Army/Navy votes for Prez Lincoln in 1864 — systematic destruction of the Confederate forces.
Result — the 13th, 14th and 15th Amdts — produced by the deaths and injuries of about 400,000 Union folks.
How many USA military folks in foreign nations since 7 Dec 1941 — for decades at a time ???
What about people that live in the District of Columbia, or the
incorporate territories? How about areas of the world that are
unincorporated territory like American Samoa or the Guano
Island? What about the remainders of territories that have been
incorporated by Congress that are now unorganized, viz. Hawai’i
and Michigan (islands in the North Pacific Ocean that are South
of Alaska)? What about the people in Republic of Panama and Antarctica that were born to an employee of the United States
Government?
Sincerely, Mark Seidenberg, Chairman,
American Independent Party of California
He is correct on this point. Distance voting is a fairly recent phenomenon, and the framing generation did not think much of it. Presence was required as far as they were concerned. This did not start to change until the Civil War, when northern states began allowing soldiers to vote even though they were not present.