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Trump’s Attack on Overseas Voters: Factually Wrong, Politically Dangerous.

October 25, 2024 | FlaglerLive | 9 Comments

trump overseas voters
Donald Trump listens at a campaign town hall in Oaks, Pa., on Oct. 14, 2024. Why is he making false allegations about overseas voting? (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

By Jennifer Saul

I do research on racist and xenophobic speech. I am also an American citizen, and have voted from overseas since 1996 (first in the U.K., and now in Canada).

This makes me especially well-placed to explain why Donald Trump’s Truth Social post about overseas voters in late September and Republican efforts to undermine those voters are factually wrong and politically dangerous.




The current law giving Americans overseas the right to vote in federal elections is the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, which was signed into law by Ronald Reagan, a Republican president.

The federal program to help American citizens vote while living overseas is overseen by the Department of Defense — which makes sense, given that a large number of them are members of the United States military. All of this should give pause to anyone who thinks that allowing overseas citizens to vote is some sort of left-wing conspiracy.

Complex process

Nor is it an easy matter to vote from overseas. Every state has its own process for verifying citizenship after the registration and request form reaches them, and each has its own rules that voters must follow in order for their ballot to be counted.

My own state, New Jersey, is relatively simple: I can email my registration/request form, get my ballot by e-mail, and email it back. But I must also remember to mail in the paper version of my ballot or my vote won’t count.

This is easy enough for me, from Canada or previously the U.K. But it’s much more difficult for American citizens living in places that lack reliable postal services who often have to use expensive courier services to carry out their duty as citizens.




My husband’s state is New York. He is allowed to e-mail his ballot request, but he must also mail a paper version of the request. And the ballot itself comes with an elaborate set of envelope templates that require precise folding — and must arrive by a strict deadline, no matter where they’re being mailed from.

He’s a former graphic designer, and comfortable performing this task. But imagine trying to do so while suffering from arthritis or vision problems — especially when the home-printed version has tiny text. In short, there is nothing easy about voting from abroad.

So why use inflammatory language to pretend it’s an easy matter to generate many thousands of fraudulent overseas votes? One explanation would be to sow doubt about the election results. Anything that can introduce uncertainty and slow down the counting process can be exploited in an effort that could allow Trump and his allies to falsely declare him the winner on Nov. 5.

Trump’s campaign has made no secret about its plan to follow this path.

Language that suggests American citizens abroad are not really American also fits into a larger pattern of stoking divisions — and of drawing ever tighter boundaries around who would be counted as “real” Americans. This is a classic fascist power move, one that leads to a sharply defined “us,” who are worthy of moral consideration, as opposed to “them,” who are not.

Disenfranchising citizens abroad

Importantly, the movement against overseas voters is not just confined to a social media post. There are lawsuits in several states designed to disenfranchise American citizens abroad. These are citizens who may have gone to enormous lengths to carry out their duties by asking for and sending in election ballots, often at substantial personal expense and faced with substantial barriers.

Trump and his allies are working hard to prevent Americans abroad from exercising their most basic rights of citizenship. When Trump uses language that accuses overseas voters of fraud and foreign interference, it suggests we’re not really Americans.




There’s a major problem in doing so. As mentioned, a large segment of American citizens abroad are members of the U.S. armed forces. Efforts to disenfranchise Americans abroad are also efforts to disenfranchise the military.

‘Figleaf’ language

That’s why Trump’s allegation on Truth Social that Democrats “want to dilute the TRUE vote of our beautiful military” makes no sense. This is especially true given it’s coming from someone who’s attacking the very law that allows members of the military to vote from abroad, including casting ballots for him if they’re so inclined.

This is what I call a figleaf — an additional bit of speech that provides just a bit of cover for saying something else that is much less acceptable. The allegation suggests, to someone who doesn’t understand overseas voting, that Trump somehow supports the military.

Trump’s “diluting the vote” rhetoric also plays into the deeply racist Great Replacement Theory. This theory holds that Democrats and other shadowy forces (often cast as Jewish) are plotting to replace white Americans with foreigners, in part as a way to secure electoral victory.

Overseas voting might seem like a niche issue. But overseas citizens could make all the difference in a close election. The attack on overseas voting is part of a much larger pattern of destructive suggestions from Trump about who is and is not a real American.

Jennifer Saul is Chair in Social and Political Philosophy of Language at the University of Waterloo in Canada.

The Conversation arose out of deep-seated concerns for the fading quality of our public discourse and recognition of the vital role that academic experts could play in the public arena. Information has always been essential to democracy. It’s a societal good, like clean water. But many now find it difficult to put their trust in the media and experts who have spent years researching a topic. Instead, they listen to those who have the loudest voices. Those uninformed views are amplified by social media networks that reward those who spark outrage instead of insight or thoughtful discussion. The Conversation seeks to be part of the solution to this problem, to raise up the voices of true experts and to make their knowledge available to everyone. The Conversation publishes nightly at 9 p.m. on FlaglerLive.
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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. I wish Sec of State's would stand up for their State's voting laws says

    October 25, 2024 at 9:22 pm

    Yes- I oversaw elections in a county in IA and this was part of the norm for elections. Mostly it was military personnel and families that requested the ballots to vote from overseas. It’s valid, it is a part of a State’s voting laws, and it is usually overseen by the Secretary of State. Laws, laws, and more laws oversee how elections are run and who is able to vote. These scathing remarks wound the years and years of fine tuning those laws to make sure everyone who should gets the chance to vote. Its disheartening to see so many years of due diligence potentially undone with one person’s comments!

    13
  2. Wallingford says

    October 25, 2024 at 9:39 pm

    Many of the US Citizens who vote from abroad are either in the Military or Dependents of Military Personnel. Just another way of showing disdain for Veterans.
    Donald probably doesn’t know that Ex-pats, unless they have rescinded their US Citizenship, pay US Taxes on their worldwide income. Probably at a higher rate than his millionaire cronies.

    18
  3. jim says

    October 25, 2024 at 10:47 pm

    wa wa wa wa. wa….

    1
  4. Deborah Coffey says

    October 26, 2024 at 8:34 am

    I bet you call yourself a patriot, too. Humbug.

    4
  5. Foresee says

    October 26, 2024 at 11:08 am

    @jim real deep thinking on your part. Figures you support the fascist Trump.

    3
  6. Jim says

    October 26, 2024 at 1:39 pm

    We have a lot of people in this country who think they are patriots yet mindlessly follow a fascist and psychopath like he’s the second coming of Christ.
    Sadly you can’t argue with closed minded idiots.
    I’m hoping the majority of citizens will recognize that there is only one reasonable candidate and vote accordingly. Otherwise idiots like this will also reap what they sow. That’s no consolation to me though.

    4
  7. Laurel says

    October 26, 2024 at 4:12 pm

    It doesn’t matter now, trying to show Trump supporters that he is a fascist. They don’t care. Trump can crap on their heads, and tell them it’s for their own good, and they will cheer.

    If he wins, he will start rounding up immigrants. People seem to forget they came from immigrants. They will be okay with it. It will be on them.

    Nobel Prize winning economists have stepped up and said Trump will f**k up the economy. Trump supporters don’t care. It will be on them.

    People in Trump’s cabinet have stated he is unfit to be President. His supporters don’t care. It will be on them.

    Women will be monitored. Trump supporters don’t care. It will be on them.

    When our democracy is ended, Trump supporters will not care. It will be on them.

    So they can put on their pointy, little white hoods and vote. It will be on them.

    3
  8. Marlee says

    October 27, 2024 at 6:05 am

    WHY does trump ALWAYS growl when he speaks????????????????

  9. Skibum says

    October 27, 2024 at 11:41 am

    Maybe he is practicing his growl in advance because of being terrified that, if Kamala Harris wins, he will soon become Bubba’s cellie in a federal prison. Now THAT would be justice in my estimation!

    2

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