Beware of third party voter registration sites targeting Americans abroad
As the 2024 Presidential Election nears there has been more effort by questionable third party voter registration organizations fighting to have overseas American voters register to vote through their websites. Take note these voter registration organizations are not pointing voters to the official federal voter registration service known as Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP. gov).
The most popular third party voter registration service targeting Americans abroad is called Vote From Abroad (VFA). At first glance VFA appears to be a nonpartisan voter registration service, but when taking a closer look at the bottom of its website it states: “Disclosure: Public Service provided by Democratic Party Committee Abroad (DemocratsAbroad.org).”
VFA is in fact a partisan voter registration service managed by the Democratic party that cloaks itself as nonpartisan while it reaches out to American voters. It works closely with Democrats Abroad, an official branch of the Democratic party to rally Democrat voters living abroad. The official Democrats Abroad Instagram account even went to the extent of lying to the public by stating Vote From Abroad is nonpartisan, as can be seen in the screenshot below.
Another strange third party voter registration site to appear in recent months through online advertising is Center for U.S. Voters Abroad (CUVA). It has been spending large sums of money on Facebook and Instagram advertising targeting Americans living abroad to encourage them to register to vote on its website.
One of its Instagram ads featured celebrity Julia Louis-Dreyfus (most widely known as Elaine on the show Seinfeld). It also paid Instagram users with large followings to direct overseas American voters to CUVA’s website to register to vote. The Instagram users did not reveal they were paid by the organization until users began questioning them.
CUVA’s website does not directly state affiliation with the Democratic party but it does state it has no connection to FVAP (the official federal voter registration program).
Clearly these third party voter registration organizations are on a mission and can be questioned regarding the security of American voters. We encourage American voters living abroad to bypass the third party voter registration organizations and to register to vote through FVAP. gov, the official federal voter registration service for overseas American voters.