A new lawsuit filed Monday by the Republican National Committee (RNC) seeks to strip voting access from a group of U.S. citizens living abroad. It’s the GOP’s latest move in its growing campaign against overseas voters.
The complaint targets a longstanding Virginia law that allows Americans living overseas to vote using a parent’s last address in the state — even if they themselves have never lived there.
The case mirrors — and expands on — similar Republican efforts in Michigan, Arizona and other states signaling a coordinated push to eliminate voting rights for certain overseas U.S. citizens ahead of the 2026 midterms.
Targeted in the lawsuits is a narrow but significant group: U.S. citizens born abroad, often to military families or Americans working overseas, who inherit voting rights from their parents and remain eligible to vote under state and federal law.
Republicans argue Virginia’s system is unconstitutional because it allows those voters to cast ballots without meeting residency requirements. Their lawsuit claims the state is improperly creating voters based solely on their parents’ past ties to Virginia.
“This is an action challenging the constitutionality of Va. Code … which collectively permit the registration and voting of individuals who (a) were born outside of the United States and (b) have never resided in the Commonwealth,” the complaint states. “Virginia has relaxed the Virginia Constitution’s residency requirement for such individuals based solely on the adult individual’s parent’s or legal guardian’s last place of residence in Virginia before leaving the United States.”
The RNC is asking the court to take the extraordinary step of blocking these voters entirely — not just going forward, but retroactively.
The complaint seeks an order to cancel existing registrations, stop election officials from issuing ballots to these voters and prevent their votes from being counted.
The lawsuit also makes an increasingly common GOP argument, claiming that overseas voters harm Republican electoral prospects.
“Upon information and belief, these ongoing registration practices place the RNC at a competitive disadvantage compared to its Democratic counterpart because never-resident voters largely favor Democratic candidates,” the complaint alleges.
Virginia’s law is part of a broader system tied to the federal Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, or UOCAVA — a law that ensures Americans living abroad, including military members and their families, can vote in federal elections.
Republicans argue that federal law does not require states to extend voting rights to people who have never lived in the state.
The Virginia case is part of a nationwide effort by Republican officials and allied groups to restrict overseas voting access — a campaign that has intensified since 2020 and increasingly targets long-standing voting protections.