Representative Abe Hamadeh (R-AZ-08) introduced a bill last week seeking to crack down on loopholes allowing election fraud through overseas ballots.
The Proving Residency for Overseas Voter Eligibility (PROVE) Act amends the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) to require non-military U.S. citizens living abroad to prove current residency in the state where they intend to vote.
Hamadeh said in a press release, “39 states, including key swing states like Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Wisconsin, permit people who have never resided in the U.S. to vote in state elections, undermining the integrity of the electoral process.”
“In Arizona, we have seen what the mismanagement of voter rolls, failed election infrastructure, and corrupt courts can do to destroy voter confidence and faith in our system overall,” he said. Since taking office, I have introduced legislation to address some of the most egregious practices and close the most glaring loopholes in our election system.”
UOCAVA requires states to allow overseas citizens to vote in federal elections based on their last state of residence, even if they have no current ties to that state. This allows them to choose any state they want, which could potentially allow them to select key battleground states like Arizona.
President Donald Trump expressed his concerns about election fraud through UOCAVA before the 2024 election. “The Democrats are talking about how they’re working so hard to get millions of votes from Americans living overseas,” he posted on X. “Actually, they are getting ready to CHEAT! They are going to use UOCAVA to get ballots, a program that emails ballots overseas without any citizenship check or verification of identity, whatsoever. (Foreign interference?) Remember they say, we have the ‘most secure elections in history,’ and anyone can get a ballot emailed to them!”
The Michigan Fair Elections Institute (MFEI) issued a report about the problem in November, Failure of UOCAVA: Potential for Noncitizen Voting in Our Elections, which found “system failure” due to the lack of safeguards. The report asserted regarding the Federal Post Card Application (FPCA) that overseas voters use, “Current wording of FPCA allows for unvetted overseas UOCAVA registrants to be placed on the voter rolls and remain there after their UOCAVA designation expires in 12 months.”
MFEI noted that “no identification or proof of citizenship is required,” and warned that the sloppy requirements could hurt military voters overseas.
“Instead of enabling active service members and federal employees serving their country overseas to cast their ballots, UOCAVA now runs the very real risk of diluting their votes with ballots from ineligible voters, unverified registrants, and even non-citizens,” the report stated.
MFEI said “it appears that if these potentially unvetted registrants do not re-apply for UOCAVA status, they remain on the state’s voter rolls.”
“The math didn’t jive,” said Patrice Johnson, chair of MFEI, in a press release. “The Defense Department estimates that about 2.8 million voting-aged citizens live overseas, so when the DNC announced plans to register 9 million overseas voters, we found the six million discrepancy puzzling.” MFEI said that 80 percent of overseas ballots come from non-military civilians.
Cleta Mitchell, founder of the Election Integrity Network, explained in the press release, “UOCAVA was originally designed to make it easier for active military service members to vote, but the procedure has mutated into rolling out a welcome mat for foreigners to vote in our elections, with no proof of citizenship or even that the voter is overseas.” She recommended treating ballots from non-military civilians differently, requiring proof of citizenship, identity, and overseas residency.
Last September, five members of Congress filed a lawsuit against the Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth over lax requirements for military and overseas voters. A judge dismissed the case before the general election alleging laches — filed too late — and lack of standing.
The Heritage Foundation’s election fraud database documented several cases of UOCAVA-related issues, such as a 2018 incident in North Carolina where an overseas voter’s ballot was flagged for residency questions.
Hamadeh said he believes he lost his race for attorney general in 2022 due to election wrongdoing, and has championed election reform since becoming a congressman this year. In April, he introduced a bill to codify Trump’s Executive Order 14248 (Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections). Also that month, he sponsored the Preventing Ranked Choice Corruption Act, to ban ranked choice voting in federal elections.
In March, he introduced The VOTE Act — Voting Only Through English — in Congress, which would halt funding to states for federal elections that print ballots in additional languages besides English.
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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on X/Twitter. Email tips to .
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