Voting while cruising: a problem

[dawei]

DW and I are interested in your take on this question, as I'm sure we're not the first or only people to be aboard during a voting cycle.

We'll be cruising in 4 weeks and won't return to the U.S. until Nov. 19th, which places us outside the dates for early voting, in person voting as well as absentee voting.

After being directed to the FPCA (Federal Post Card Application) form for "Voter Registration and Absentee Ballot Request," the issue comes into focus.  In addition to military, the 3 other choices under "Who are you? Pick One..." all state "I am a U.S. citizen living outside the country..."  

Next is space for "your address in the U.S...." which is no problem. That's followed by form question #3, "Where are you now?" The answer must be your current address, and it must be different from your address in the U.S.!

There's no provision for a voter who is traveling, in contrast to someone who is living abroad and has a valid mailing address in another country.

The one-page form ends with space for your signature and the date, under penalty of perjury that the information provided is true, accurate and complete.

 

David

 

[Susanmaz]

I would go to your local voter registration board and talk to the in person. We will be gone over Election Day, but we do early voting, so we will have our ballots in October before we leave. We always drop our ballots in person, and we can track their status online. 

[The-Inside-Cabin]

This is from the Florida Election Website:

 

Lot's of options - but as @Susanmaz said, a visit or phone call to your local election office is your best bet.     In California, they will email you the ballot and you can FAX it back.   HAL will FAX things for you for free.   

 

This says they can FAX you your ballot and you can set up one of those FAX to email accounts to get your ballot.  

 

Military and Overseas Citizens

Request a Vote-by-Mail Ballot

Members of the United States Uniformed Services on active duty and the merchant marine, their spouses and dependents, and United States citizens residing outside of the United States may apply for voter registration or request a vote-by-mail ballot with a Federal Post Card Application (FPCA), which may be obtained from a Voting Assistance Officer or online at www.fvap.gov.

The FPCA request for a vote-by-mail ballot will be effective for all elections through the next 2 regularly scheduled general elections. If the FPCA is not available, phone or send a written request by mail, fax, or email to your local Supervisor of Elections and a voter registration application or vote-by-mail ballot will be sent to you. If you are overseas, you may have your vote-by-mail ballot faxed to you, in lieu of receiving it by regular mail.

If your include an email address with your overseas vote-by-mail ballot request, your Supervisor of Elections will email you  the names of candidates who will be on the ballots for the primary and general election no later than 30 days before each election.

Voting a Vote-by-Mail Ballot

Once your vote-by-mail ballot is voted, return it by fax or mail to your Supervisor of Elections so that it is received no later than 7:00 pm on Election Day. You cannot return voted ballots by email. Carefully follow the instructions sent to you with your vote-by-mail ballot to ensure that it is counted. You must be sure to not only sign, but date the vote-by-mail ballot envelope to ensure that your ballot is counted.

[pengu1n]

We too will be cruising on election day, but in Missouri, we can vote up to 6 weeks prior to election day.

[Quartzsite Cruiser]

I would also urge you to talk to the county offical in charge of elections.  

 

In 2018, we were on a 60 day cruise and arranged for our ballots to be emailed to us so we could vote absentee.  We only filled out the application for an absentee ballot by mail, and did not need to worry about the FPCA.  Our ballots had to be mailed, so we printed the ballots and the envelopes on the ship. 

 

I don't know what ports you will be visiting, but we went to the American Consulate in Shanghai.  If you go to the American Citizen Services office at the consulate, you can mail your ballot for free.  They will put the ballot in the consular pouch that is flown to DC each day, and from there, it will go by regular mail to your local election office.

 

Since each state has different laws and regulations, you need to be sure to know what you state allows.  We found going in person to see our Election Administrator was our best option as we learned more than if we'd done it by phone.

 

If you can't get to a consulate, you can mail the ballot locally, or if your state allows it, you can fax the ballot.  If you want to mail it from the ship, be sure to check how they handle the mail to the US before mailing it. 

 

If you go to a consulate office, take your passports.  Just showing them at the door avoided any hassle for us.  Sometimes the ACS is in a different location than the consulate, but you can find the address on line.

 

Edited September 11, 2022 by Quartzsite Cruiser

[Mary229]

How old are you?  In my county you can absentee vote perpetually after a certain age. They automatically send the ballots as soon as they are ready.   You can revoke this permission later to resume in person voting. 
 

understand the ballots are only mailed to your legal address and the ballots are only prepared according to local timetables.  I was offered a variance in address but unfortunately did not have a secondary address to have it sent. On my last cruise there was to be a last minute runoff which caused a delay in the ballot until past my cruise date 

[dawei]

Thanks, CC members,  for sharing your experiences on this question!

What I didn't mention in my original post was that I did call my county's election office three times and was informed by different staff members on those three occasions that we need to complete and mail in the  FPCA form (available on their website) before Sept. 24th, the date they begin to send out absentee ballots, including by e-mail. No other option was offered.

 

Completing the FPCA is the stumbling block, as it requires a current overseas address and stating that you are living there now.

 

David

 

[AncientWanderer]

46 minutes ago, dawei said:

Thanks, CC members,  for sharing your experiences on this question!

What I didn't mention in my original post was that I did call my county's election office three times and was informed by different staff members on those three occasions that we need to complete and mail in the  FPCA form (available on their website) before Sept. 24th, the date they begin to send out absentee ballots, including by e-mail. No other option was offered.

 

Completing the FPCA is the stumbling block, as it requires a current overseas address and stating that you are living there now.

 

David

 

 

For all the stumbling blocks you have mentioned, we finally decided to skip it when in South America during the last major election.  Our registrar offered no help.  We were departing before the start of early voting and there could be no exceptions.

Luckily our state isn't a swing state and there were no controversial things down ballot.  Still we felt bad, as we always vote.

 

It's interesting to hear the experiences of others.

[Tampa Girl]

15 hours ago, dawei said:

DW and I are interested in your take on this question, as I'm sure we're not the first or only people to be aboard during a voting cycle.

We'll be cruising in 4 weeks and won't return to the U.S. until Nov. 19th, which places us outside the dates for early voting, in person voting as well as absentee voting.

After being directed to the FPCA (Federal Post Card Application) form for "Voter Registration and Absentee Ballot Request," the issue comes into focus.  In addition to military, the 3 other choices under "Who are you? Pick One..." all state "I am a U.S. citizen living outside the country..."  

Next is space for "your address in the U.S...." which is no problem. That's followed by form question #3, "Where are you now?" The answer must be your current address, and it must be different from your address in the U.S.!

There's no provision for a voter who is traveling, in contrast to someone who is living abroad and has a valid mailing address in another country.

The one-page form ends with space for your signature and the date, under penalty of perjury that the information provided is true, accurate and complete.

 

David

 

 

Did  you ask when the elections office when they will be sending out the Vote-By-Mail ballots?  I may not be correctly remembering this, but I thought that the absentee ballots were sent out about a month before elections day.  If that is the case, you would be able to obtain one before sailing and then mail it from the ship.  You should get better service by requesting it in writing, since the law specifically permits such a request.

See the following Florida Vote-By-Mail:

"A request for a vote-by-mail ballot may be made in one of the following ways:

• By signed writing (e.g., mail, fax, or scanned attachment to an email) to Supervisor of Elections
• In person at Supervisor of Elections' office
• By phone to Supervisor of Elections

The voter's request must include the following information:

• The voter's name;
• The voter’s date of birth;
• The voter’s address (If the request is to mail the ballot to an address other than the one on file, the request must be a signed writing. An exception exists for absent uniformed service voter or an overseas voter seeking a vote-by-mail ballot.);
• The voter’s Florida driver license, Florida identification card, or last four digits of the elector’s social security number, whichever may be verified in the supervisor’s records;
• The voter’s signature (if the request is written)."

 

[Tampa Girl]

15 hours ago, dawei said:

DW and I are interested in your take on this question, as I'm sure we're not the first or only people to be aboard during a voting cycle.

We'll be cruising in 4 weeks and won't return to the U.S. until Nov. 19th, which places us outside the dates for early voting, in person voting as well as absentee voting.

After being directed to the FPCA (Federal Post Card Application) form for "Voter Registration and Absentee Ballot Request," the issue comes into focus.  In addition to military, the 3 other choices under "Who are you? Pick One..." all state "I am a U.S. citizen living outside the country..."  

Next is space for "your address in the U.S...." which is no problem. That's followed by form question #3, "Where are you now?" The answer must be your current address, and it must be different from your address in the U.S.!

There's no provision for a voter who is traveling, in contrast to someone who is living abroad and has a valid mailing address in another country.

The one-page form ends with space for your signature and the date, under penalty of perjury that the information provided is true, accurate and complete.

 

David

 

 

Relating to my previous post, I do not think that the FPCA, which is entitled "Registration and Absentee Ballot Request" my be the form that you want to use.

[WriterOnDeck]

Texas doesn't make it easy. But during the 2020 world cruise, we gave an address of the port agent in Uruguay. I think they mailed it but we never got it. Our county office said don't worry -- they just needed an address to send it to, but they also would email it. The HAL front desk printed out the ballot and we paid a bit to have DHL send it in. Well worth it to vote in the primary, I thought.

 

Unfortunately, when the runoff came a few months later and I went to early vote, they had sent that ballot to Uruguay. So I had to cast a provisional ballot. It was better than a few years earlier, when I went to vote only to find I had been dropped because I had died. Another story I won't go into here....

[rkacruiser]

7 hours ago, dawei said:

that I did call my county's election office three times and was informed by different staff members on those three occasions that we need to complete and mail in the  FPCA form (available on their website) before Sept. 24th, the date they begin to send out absentee ballots, including by e-mail. No other option was offered.

 

I have never heard of such a Federal form and have voted during two long cruises. ( Is this an attempt to restrict who is allowed to vote?)

 

In my Ohio County, I have filed an absentee ballot request providing the detailed address of the cruise line's Port Agent where I want the ballot sent.  Both of my requests were to have ballots sent to Hong Kong.  The Port Agent's address was many lines in length,  One of the Election Office's employees called me and asked if all of that information was required.  I said:  yes.  Her response was, we can't get all of that on an address label.  I suggested two address labels.  Yes, we could do that, I suppose, was her response.  The Amsterdam was in Hong Kong for two days.  My ballot was delivered to me on the ship during the first day.  I voted and took the Star Ferry to the Island and walked to the nearby Post Office to mail the following day.

 

If you are successful in getting a ballot, do not mail it at your ship's Front Office!  Trying to do so, the price for postage did not seem appropriate for the size of the envelope and the kind of mail it was.  (I was quoted post card postage price.)  Mailing it at their Post Office in Hong Kong, the price for postage was considerably higher than what the Front Office staff member quoted.    This was not difficult to do.  And, arriving home, I checked with my Board of Elections Office to see if the ballot had been received and counted.  It was.  

 

Also, you MUST do the proper planning as to how long it may take for the ballot to make it to the Port Agent.  And, as I found, if you are in a port for more than one day, it will be easier for you to get it to wherever their Post Office is.  

[papadave]

Another option is to put this question to your local newspaper or TV station.   If they have interest, not only is there a chance you will get a firm answer, but if the answer is that you are being denied the right to vote because you are taking a cruise, that may be newsworthy.

[Suslor]

22 hours ago, The-Inside-Cabin said:

This is from the Florida Election Website:

 

Lot's of options - but as @Susanmaz said, a visit or phone call to your local election office is your best bet.     In California, they will email you the ballot and you can FAX it back.   HAL will FAX things for you for free.   

 

This says they can FAX you your ballot and you can set up one of those FAX to email accounts to get your ballot.  

 

Military and Overseas Citizens

Request a Vote-by-Mail Ballot

Members of the United States Uniformed Services on active duty and the merchant marine, their spouses and dependents, and United States citizens residing outside of the United States may apply for voter registration or request a vote-by-mail ballot with a Federal Post Card Application (FPCA), which may be obtained from a Voting Assistance Officer or online at www.fvap.gov.

The FPCA request for a vote-by-mail ballot will be effective for all elections through the next 2 regularly scheduled general elections. If the FPCA is not available, phone or send a written request by mail, fax, or email to your local Supervisor of Elections and a voter registration application or vote-by-mail ballot will be sent to you. If you are overseas, you may have your vote-by-mail ballot faxed to you, in lieu of receiving it by regular mail.

If your include an email address with your overseas vote-by-mail ballot request, your Supervisor of Elections will email you  the names of candidates who will be on the ballots for the primary and general election no later than 30 days before each election.

Voting a Vote-by-Mail Ballot

Once your vote-by-mail ballot is voted, return it by fax or mail to your Supervisor of Elections so that it is received no later than 7:00 pm on Election Day. You cannot return voted ballots by email. Carefully follow the instructions sent to you with your vote-by-mail ballot to ensure that it is counted. You must be sure to not only sign, but date the vote-by-mail ballot envelope to ensure that your ballot is counted.

Thanks @The Inside Cabin  We did this with our fingers 🤞 crossed. We leave October 1, returning 11/17 so in DC we will miss receiving our ballot by mail, early in person voting and Election Day. We should receive our ballots by email, print them out, complete and have HAL fax them in. 

[arzz]

In October of 2008 we onboard the Amsterdam enjoying the Grand Asia and Pacific voyage and needed to vote. Illinois would not be mailing absentee ballots until after we had left home for the cruise but through the magic of the cruise critic roll call boards and the generosity of one poster in particular, Foxpaw, who joined our cruise in Singapore we were able to cast our ballots in the Presidential election that year. From my cruise critic blog of that voyage:

 

Wednesday was Singapore. We arose very early (it was still dark out) -- we had to collect our passports after they were cleared by Singapore Immigration but before leaving the ship as it is necessary for US citizens to have their passports in their possession while touring in this port. 

 

This was our day to cast our absentee ballots in the presidential election. Fellow cruise critic member Foxpaw had volunteered to receive our ballots (which would not be mailed by our election commission until October -- long past the commencement of our voyage) at his home in Virginia and hand carry them with him to Singapore where he joined us on board. In order to maximize our port time we and cruise critic members Aussieoz were to meet Foxpaw at his Singapore hotel. 

 

When we arrived at Foxpaw’s suite at the Shangri La our ballots were laid out for us and we were able to mark them in luxurious comfort while enjoying his 21st story views of the city. Foxpaw we cannot thank you enough! 

 

From there we went to the US Embassy. This was my first chance to enter one of our embassy's abroad. Not surprisingly security was very tight. Only two of us were allowed to enter security at a time. Our belongings were x-rayed and searched visually. Ed’s camera bag and camera were detained while we were allowed in. Depositing our ballots for inclusion in the embassy’s diplomatic pouch to the US was quick (and rather exciting). We exited and Ed then rejoined his camera and belongings. I doubt that we will ever again vote in such an unusual manner. Voting is such a wonderful privilege of our democracy and it was exciting to see how our government participates in expediting the process for citizens abroad.

 

link to my blog:

 

 

[USN59-79]

On one of our long Asia trips we requested our absentee ballot be sent to the U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong.  Went to the Consulate in Victoria, told them what we wanted and they had the ballots.  We took them back to the ship, voted, and mailed them from the front office.  I don't remember it being expensive to mail them.  We had requested them from and mailed them to the voting registrar in Kitsap County, Washington.  Worked fine for us.

Ray

[FlaMariner]

Voting is too important to us.....We plan cruises/vacations around early voting/election dates.......You have a ton of time to be around for absentee ballots and early voting. 

 

Plan accordingly. 

[cruisingrob21]

19 minutes ago, FlaMariner said:

Voting is too important to us.....We plan cruises/vacations around early voting/election dates.......You have a ton of time to be around for absentee ballots and early voting. 

 

Plan accordingly. 

This!  ☝️

[WriterOnDeck]

2 hours ago, FlaMariner said:

Voting is too important to us.....We plan cruises/vacations around early voting/election dates.......You have a ton of time to be around for absentee ballots and early voting. 

 

Plan accordingly. 

Not always true. In Texas you have about 3 weeks between early voting and absentee ballots. And in many cases only one drop-box per county. My county seat is 30+ miles away. Harris County (Houston) only has one drop box for 4+ milliion people.

 

I leave from the country on a cruise on Sept. 30 -- too early for the absentee ballot or early voting -- and return on Thanksgiving day. And if you sail on World cruises, you are gone for months. Thus why I work hard to find a way to vote from overseas. No judgment, please...

Edited September 12, 2022 by WriterOnDeck

[Quartzsite Cruiser]

22 minutes ago, WriterOnDeck said:

Not always true. In Texas you have about 3 weeks between early voting and absentee ballots. And in many cases only one drop-box per county. My county seat is 30+ miles away. Harris County (Houston) only has one drop box for 4+ milliion people.

 

I leave from the country on a cruise on Sept. 30 -- too early for the absentee ballot or early voting -- and return on Thanksgiving day. And if you sail on World cruises, you are gone for months. Thus why I work hard to find a way to vote from overseas. No judgment, please...

 

You will get no judgment from us, fellow Texans.  We have voted overseas twice. 

 

The first time in 2002, email ballots were not possible.  The tricky part was where to have them mailed since in late August, early September, our county election office had no idea when they ballots would be printed and when they would receive them.  We got the addresses of the port agents in three ports.  I sent them a detailed letter with the addresses and by guessing, which dates to use which address.  The ballots were delivered to our cabin in Singapore after we sailed.  We were not able to mail the ballots until very close to the deadline from Broome, Australia, by express mail which only worked in Australia.  To this day, I only know they made it to Sydney.

 

In 2018, it was much smoother process since the ballots and envelop front and back information was emailed to us. We printed them on the ship, including all the ancillary forms.  For Texas you cannot use the generic mail ballot envelop, but one with specific information on the back.  We took the completed ballots in all their envelopes to the American Services Center of the Shanghai Consulate.  They put them through the xray machine, then we dropped them in an ordinary hiuse mailbox to be added to the consular pouch to be sent to DC to be put in the regular USPS mail.

 

We're lucky we live in a less populated county and have a very nice and helpful Election Administrator.

[oakridger]

I just got off the phone with our county elections office. (Contra Costa County California).  There is a form to fill out online for out of country voters and I can request a ballot by email when they are printed. I then must print and mail back the ballot or FAX it.  Can't email it back.  I teased him about the antiquated FAX technology but that's all they offer now.

 

Does anyone know if the Nieuw Amsterdam has a FAX machine on board?  I really hope to not have to mail it from Costa Rica or Aruba!! 

 

Thanks,

~Nancy

[WriterOnDeck]

30 minutes ago, oakridger said:

I just got off the phone with our county elections office. (Contra Costa County California).  There is a form to fill out online for out of country voters and I can request a ballot by email when they are printed. I then must print and mail back the ballot or FAX it.  Can't email it back.  I teased him about the antiquated FAX technology but that's all they offer now.

 

Does anyone know if the Nieuw Amsterdam has a FAX machine on board?  I really hope to not have to mail it from Costa Rica or Aruba!! 

 

Thanks,

~Nancy

I'm sure all the ships do and in the past they have not even charged us to fax. Texas will only accept ballots by mail, so sadly no fax. We sent via DHL in early 2020 from Uruguay.

[oakridger]

Thanks @WriterOnDeck for your firsthand FAX information! I appreciate our options to vote here if we are not home at the time!

 

~Nancy

[WriterOnDeck]

I just submitted my Federal Post Card Application for Nov. 2022 voting. (I leave Oct. 2 on the Westerdam and return on Thanksgiving so can't vote here.) It is pretty straightforward.

 

Go to www.FPCA.gov and follow the instructions. I'm in Texas, and we must provide a foreign address to which the ballot will be mailed, even though we also will receive it in email. My TA got me the address for the port agent in Fiji. But meanwhile, when the email comes, I will print out the ballot, fill it in, and mail it. I'll talk to the front desk about the best way to do that.

 

[riverrat]

On 9/11/2022 at 6:53 PM, Suslor said:

Thanks @The Inside Cabin  We did this with our fingers 🤞 crossed. We leave October 1, returning 11/17 so in DC we will miss receiving our ballot by mail, early in person voting and Election Day. We should receive our ballots by email, print them out, complete and have HAL fax them in. 

 

We are accomplishing this in Arizona with the...... Federal Write In Absentee Ballot (FWAB)

 

It is a blank ballot, but we can fill it in at home and take it with us to mail. We obtained it thru email after a phone call to our local "Elections Services" In Arizona 1-800-THE-VOTE