By The Epoch Times | Created at 2026-10-01 21:17:03 | Updated at 2026-10-02 06:03:40
8 hours ago
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) sued the Department of War and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on Oct. 1 over the removal of a checkbox from the federal form Americans abroad use to register to vote and request mail ballots.
The lawsuit names the Department of Defense, the department’s legal name. Under a September 2025 executive order, the department also uses Department of War as a secondary title, which appears on its letters to OMB.
The checkbox, which read “I am a U.S. citizen living outside the country, I have never lived in the United States,” was removed from the Federal Post Card Application in late August. The Pentagon asked OMB to approve the change on an emergency basis and to bypass the public comment periods normally required to revise the form.
The DNC’s complaint, filed in federal court in Washington, alleges the change violates the Administrative Procedure Act.
“The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) has proclaimed a transparently false ‘emergency’ to alter voter-registration materials without notice and comment in an effort to disenfranchise eligible American citizens,” the complaint states.
The DNC says the change could make it impossible for U.S. citizens born and living abroad to use the form to register in states where they are eligible to vote. Thirty-eight states and the District of Columbia allow those citizens to vote, according to the complaint, which cites a 2016 estimate from the Pentagon’s Federal Voting Assistance Program that about 11,590 of them were registered.
In its
requestto OMB, the Pentagon said the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) defines overseas voters as service members absent from the United States because of active duty, and people living abroad who would be qualified to vote in the last place “the person was domiciled before leaving the United States.”
It said citizens who are not in the military and have never lived in the United States “are not within the class of voters specifically defined by UOCAVA” and may not be able to use the form.
“The elimination of this checkbox will reduce confusion and avoid the use of the form by those who are ineligible under UOCAVA,” the letter states.
The Pentagon also said that because the next federal election was fewer than 90 days away, there was not enough time to change the form through the standard review process.
OMB received the request on Aug. 26 and approved it on Aug. 28 for six months, according to its notice of action. The revised
formnow gives civilians abroad two options: that they intend to return to the United States, or that their intent to return is uncertain.
The Pentagon
openeda 60-day public comment period on the form in a Sept. 10 Federal Register. Comments are due Nov. 9, six days after the midterm elections.
The complaint ties the change to Republican National Committee (RNC) lawsuits filed since 2024 challenging the eligibility of overseas citizens who have never lived in the United States. The RNC has brought those challenges in eight states, according to the complaint, which cites an RNC filing in Virginia saying such voters “largely favor Democratic candidates.”
State courts in four states have rejected the challenges, and a North Carolina court accepted one, the complaint states. The RNC said in 2024, when it filed its first two suits, that the federal overseas voting law “does not expand voter eligibility to individuals who were never state residents.”
“Trump and Republicans are so desperate to hang on to power that they are trying to eliminate the way some American citizens abroad register to vote and request mail ballots,” DNC Chair Ken Martin said in a statement. “The DNC will continue to use every legal tool at our disposal to defend every American’s First Amendment right to participate in our democracy—no matter who they are or where they live.”
The DNC asks the court to set aside the change and order the Pentagon to reissue the January 2023 version of the form.
The Pentagon’s press office said in an email to The Epoch Times that the department “does not comment on pending or ongoing litigation.” OMB did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Epoch Times on Thursday.
