The voting assistance team from the U.S. Embassy invites all U.S. citizens to join them at one of three events focused on assisting U.S. citizens who are interested in voting overseas. A consular officer will be on hand to assist you in requesting, preparing, and ultimately by collecting overseas absentee ballots for the upcoming U.S. presidential election. The events will be held at the American Corners throughout Albania. U.S. Embassy personnel will be at: the American Corner in Kukes on September 12th, from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.; the American Corner in Vlora on September 17th, from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.; and the American Corner in Tirana on September 20th, from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
The U.S. Embassy would like to encourage all U.S. citizens living in Albania that the U. S. presidential election season is here and they should act now if they want their vote to count. U.S. citizens living abroad must be registered in order to vote in U.S. general and presidential elections. To obtain an absentee ballot, U.S. citizens should visit the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) online at www.fvap.gov.
Generally, all U.S. citizens 18 years old or older, who are or will be residing outside the United States during an election period, are eligible to cast an absentee ballot in any election for federal office. Eligibility to vote for local or state offices, elections, or referendums varies by state. Eligibility and residency requirements for each state can be found on the FVAP website.
For voting purposes, the “legal state of residence” is the state where the citizen last resided immediately prior to departure from the United States. Voting rights are extend to overseas citizens even though they may no longer own property or have other ties to their last state of residence, and even if their intent to return to that state may be uncertain. For those who have never resided in the U.S., sixteen states, to date, allow eligible U.S. citizens to register where a parent would be eligible to vote.
We encourage all U.S. citizens who would like to meet with the Embassy’s voting assistance team to attend one of the three events listed above.
