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Crystal Jackson sorts mail-in ballots for processing in Martinez on May 8, 2026. The Trump administration has eliminated a crucial mechanism to return absentee ballots, which makes voting very difficult for overseas military members.<\/p>\n
Benjamin Fanjoy\/For the S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
It\u2019s never been easy to cast an absentee ballot from inside a military submarine. But now that the Trump administration has eliminated a crucial mechanism to return absentee ballots, overseas voting requires even more of a herculean effort.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an archaic reality: California\u2019s absentee voter laws rely heavily on fax machines and the U.S. Postal Service. For military members in far-flung deployments or at sea, where Postal Service is unreliable to nonexistence, the Department of Defense\u2019s free email-to-fax service was a lifeline to democracy for the last 36 years. The Department of Defense in August announced, without explanation, it was cutting the fax service as the administration axed federal programs it said constituted wasteful spending. The voters who used the program are now facing their first election cycle without it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re thinking of the military voters who will no longer be able to cast their ballots in time,\u201d said Sen. Sabrina Cervantes, D-Riverside, who is attempting to reform state absentee voting law in the legislature. \u201cWe want to make sure we aren\u2019t abandoning Californians who are deployed abroad or serving overseas.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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It isn\u2019t just a California problem. Six other states\u00a0\u2014 including Texas and Florida\u00a0\u2014 still dictate fax machines as the alternative, by law, to the Postal Service to return overseas ballots to election offices. Meanwhile, 31 other states have what they call secure electronic ballot transmission available only to those overseas that can be accessed by a smartphone or computer. Yet California leaders\u00a0\u2014 including the secretary of state\u00a0\u2014 are hesitant to adopt similar policies, citing cybersecurity risks at a time election security is already under intense scrutiny.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are concerned that ushering in such a system will only serve to undermine public confidence in our elections,\u201d Timothy Cromartie, a lobbyist for California Secretary of State Shirley Weber\u2019s office, said during a recent Senate committee hearing.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Voting advocates say that without some compromise, the reality is that fewer overseas voters will return their ballots in time to be counted, if they attempt the cumbersome process at all. A case currently before the U.S. Supreme Court could complicate things even further by imposing a strict window in which mail ballots can be counted. Fifteen states and D.C., including California, allow overseas ballots to be tallied even if they show up a few days after Election Day\u00a0\u2014 as long as they\u2019re postmarked on time.<\/p>\n Republicans argue voter ID laws\u00a0\u2014 like a measure to impose ID requirements that will face California voters in November\u00a0\u2014 and limits on the period in which mail ballots can be received, make elections more secure. Voting rights advocates say they\u2019re part of systematic efforts to make voting more difficult and suppress turnout.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Susan Dzieduszycka-Suinat, president of the Overseas Voter Foundation, said that encrypted online ballot delivery and extended ballot return deadlines have, so far, shown to be the best solution to ensure a ballot completes its journey in time for those living overseas or deployed by the military. Federal law does require absentee ballots to be ready at least 45 days before the election, but sometimes that cushion is not enough.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWithout a really substantial federal-level investment, we\u2019re always going to have this\u00a0hodgepodge of fragmented solutions across the nation,\u201d said\u00a0Dzieduszycka-Suinat, a California voter based in Germany. \u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019ve got, and I don\u2019t see it changing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s an imperfect system, and has been for decades. In California and other fax-reliant states, counties can send the blank ballots digitally but cannot accept them returned that way. Sailors are expected to print out ballots though access to printers isn\u2019t guaranteed at sea. Then there\u2019s the mail service to send that printed ballot back, which could come maybe every one to two weeks under perfect circumstances\u00a0\u2014 but war and other international conflicts can easily upend that schedule.\u00a0<\/p>\n A full mail-in process can become its own race against time. A week before California\u2019s June 2 primary election, Dzieduszycka-Suinat said her ballot from San Mateo County had yet to show up to her home in Munich. During the 2024 election, 1 in 7 military voters did not receive a ballot in time or never received one at all, according to a federal survey<\/a>.<\/p>\n In that same election, about 67% of active-duty military members were registered to vote. Of that group, less than half\u00a0\u2014 about 42%\u00a0\u2014 voted, according to a report to Congress<\/a>. Among the roughly 3.3 million people living overseas\u00a0\u2014 which includes military families, students studying abroad and people working abroad\u00a0\u2014 just 11% voted in the 2024 election. That\u2019s about 247,000 ballots. (Domestic voter turnout among those registered was about 76%.)<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Cervantes introduced a bill this session\u00a0\u2014 SB970\u00a0\u2014 that calls on the secretary of state to create a way for military and overseas voters to submit their ballots electronically. Among the 31 states and D.C. that have these types of methods, 24 have a specialized portal or email option, Cervantes said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Evelyn Magas sorts mail-in ballots for processing in Martinez on May 8, 2026.<\/p>\n Benjamin Fanjoy\/For the S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n But the bill quickly drew opposition from voting security advocates and Weber.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe secretary of state is certainly sympathetic to the objectives of the bill,\u201d said Cromartie, the office\u2019s lobbyist, during the April 7 committee hearing. \u201cThe issue is she\u2019s not willing to jeopardize an existing secure election system.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n