Tell the Pentagon: Don't Silence Overseas Voters

The Pentagon just stole the right to vote from thousands of Americans overseas, just to help Republicans win the midterms. They're locking out voters they're afraid of, and those voters are just finding out now.

In late August, the Pentagon's Federal Voting Assistance Program used an "emergency" bypass to gut two federal voting forms. Gone is a voter category that's stood for over a decade: Americans born overseas who've never lived in the U.S. but are still eligible to vote.

The man who signed off, Sean O'Keefe — the Pentagon official whose office the voting program answers to — never named the law that demanded this, or why it was an "emergency." Nobody outside the Pentagon even knew until reporters dug it up this week. His boss, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, should reverse it right now.

Add your name. Tell Hegseth and the Pentagon: Don't steal the freedom to vote from American military families and civilians overseas.

Here's the motive, in plain sight: Since 2024, the Republican National Committee has filed at least eight lawsuits trying to strip these exact voters off the rolls. Their own court filings admit why: these voters "overwhelmingly favor Democratic candidates." 

This was never about confusion. It's about erasing voters Republicans are scared of.

Michigan judges tossed the RNC's argument twice. So now, the Pentagon quietly did what Republicans couldn't win in court.

The Pentagon now admits states can keep using the old forms anyway. So there was no emergency. But they decided to make voting harder for people this administration didn't think deserved a say.

No voting rights advocate was consulted. No election official was warned. Nobody who actually uses these forms was asked — and that's not an oversight, it's contempt.

Military families and Americans working abroad are losing their vote, and they're finding out with only weeks to spare

The Pentagon has already shown this costs nothing to fix. California's secretary of state has kept the old category on her own state's forms, and groups like the U.S. Vote Foundation are demanding the Pentagon do the same. Now they need the signatures to make Hegseth listen too — before more ballots go out.

Sign now and demand Secretary Hegseth order the Pentagon to restore full ballot access for every eligible American voter overseas.

The petition to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and the Pentagon reads:

"Restore the voter classification removed from the Federal Post Card Application and Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot, and commit to a full public-comment period before making any further changes to these forms."