Non-resident citizen voting
Non-resident citizen voting is citizens voting in elections according to their citizenship while not residing in the country of the election. As of 2020 a total of 141 countries grant non-residents such as emigrants or expatriates the right to non-resident citizen voting. There is considerable variation across countries in regard to voter eligibility, voting modalities, i.e. voting in person at diplomatic missions or other physical locations, by post or online, which elections nonresident citizens may vote in, i.e. elections of the national legislature, executive elections, referendums, or sub-national elections, and how nonresident citizen voters are represented. The number of countries enfranchising nonresident citizens accelerated significantly in the 1990s. Social scientists have advanced a number of claims about the causes and consequences of this development and debated its normative implications or pros and cons of nonresident citizen voting.
Variations
Some countries grant their expatriate citizens unlimited voting rights, identical to those of citizens living in their home country. Other countries allow expatriate citizens to vote only for a certain number of years after leaving the country, after which they are no longer eligible to vote. Other countries reserve the right vote solely to citizens living in that country, thereby stripping expatriate citizens of their voting rights once they leave their home country.There is similar variation in how non-resident citizens can exercise their right to vote. Most commonly, non-resident voters have to cast their ballots at an embassy or consulate of their country. Some countries are even more restrictive, such as East Timor which "limited in-person voting to only its Australian and Portuguese missions in 2017." At the less restrictive end of the spectrum non-resident New Zealand voters may download their ballots and upload their completed ballots to the Electoral Commission's website or mail in or fax their ballots to the New Zealand Electoral Commission or a New Zealand diplomatic mission.
French non-resident citizen voters may cast ballots in elections for the European Parliament, French presidential elections, national referendums as well as elections to the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, and elections for members of the Assembly of French Citizens Resident Abroad who in turn elect 12 members of the French Senate. New Zealand non-resident citizen voters may cast their ballots in national as well as local elections. In Colombia non-resident citizens may vote in presidential and legislative elections, but they are excluded from regional and local elections.
Finally, some countries assimilate non-resident voters into existing constituencies for resident citizens whereas others have reserved special seats in their legislatures for non-resident citizen voters. The United States is an example of the first alternative. United States citizens who live abroad may vote in the state where they have established voting residence, and their votes will count toward election results in that state. Italy, on the other hand, established special seats in the Italian Senate and the Chamber of Deputies to represent non-resident citizens.
Historical development
According to a pioneering study by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, the first case of external voting took place in the United States in the state of Wisconsin in 1862 when the state allowed absentee voting by soldiers fighting in the Civil War. The United Kingdom also allowed absentee voting for soldiers in 1918. After WWII Indonesia adopted legislation in 1953 which allowed not just military personnel or other public servants but also migrant workers and students to vote from abroad. The biggest expansion of external voting occurred in the 1990s.Causes and consequences
There are a number of different reasons which explain why and when states enfranchise non-resident citizens. One factor is that states seek benefits from emigrants, i.e. states hope that emigrants will be more likely to contribute to the economy of their country of origin through remittances or show loyalty in other ways if they have the right to vote in that country's elections. Second, the enfranchisement of non-resident citizens may be the result of lobbying by emigrant organizations. This played a role in the Mexican case. Third, governing parties will resist non-resident citizen voting if they have grounds to believe that extending the franchise will benefit the opposition. Thus, non-resident citizen voting becomes possible once the opponents of non-resident citizen voting lose power as happened in Italy in the 1990s. Finally, Turcu and Urbatch found evidence for the diffusion of democratic norms favoring non-resident citizen voting. Once one country introduces non-resident citizen voting, neighboring countries become more likely to do the same.Normative debates
Political theorists and legal scholars have debated the merits of and problems with non-resident citizen voting. Political theorist and citizenship scholar Rainer Bauböck has evaluated a number of arguments in favor of non-resident citizen voting. First, in a democracy all citizens beyond the minimum age requirement should have the right to vote, and non-resident citizens are still citizens and thus should have the right to vote. Second, non-resident citizens make important economic contributions to their countries of origin, and the value of these contributions should be recognized by offering them the right to vote. Ultimately, Bauböck favors a third approach centered around the concept of stakeholder community. He proposes the "ndividuals whose circumstances of life link their future well-being to the flourishing of a particular polity should be recognized as stakeholders in that polity with a claim to participate in collective decision-making processes that shape the shared future of this political community". Thus, the first generation should be allowed to vote in elections in their countries of origin. According to Bauböck, this privilege should not automatically be extended to the second or subsequent generations.The legal scholar Ruth Rubio Marin is more critical of proposals to extend voting rights to non-resident citizens. She argues that "bsentee voting is an option that, under certain circumstances, sending countries may legitimately embrace; it is not a right that diasporic national communities can simply assert".
By jurisdiction
Australia
Australian citizens living abroad may vote if they register to vote within three years of leaving and intend to return to Australia within six years of leaving. Australians who were under 18 when they left Australia may vote if they intend to return to Australia within six years of their 18th birthday. Voting may be done by post or at an Australian embassy, consulate or high commission. Unlike for Australians living in Australia, voting is not compulsory for expatriate Australians.For the 2023 Australian Indigenous Voice referendum, overseas voting centres were operational at Australian diplomatic offices in 80 countries and territories. While most countries and territories only had one polling place, multiple were available for voters in Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United States and Vietnam. Additionally, telephone voting was available for Australian citizens in Antarctica.
For state and territory elections, the availability of overseas polling places is limited, though interstate polling places are operational for state and territory elections in every state and territory. In New South Wales, voters living or travelling overseas must vote by post unless they are able to vote at an in-person early voting centre in New Zealand. In other jurisdictions, overseas voters normally have to either vote by post or vote online.
Austria
Austrian citizens living abroad may vote by post in Austrian presidential and parliamentary elections, as well as referendums, with no expiry date. They must enrol on a dedicated foreign voters' register and must renew their registration every ten years.Bangladesh
Under the Voter List Ordinance of 2007, Bangladeshi citizens living abroad ware deemed to be residents of the constituency where they had previously lived or where they still maintained ancestral property. However, there are currently no mechanisms in place for postal or proxy voting for them, meaning that they have to travel to the constituency in which they were registered in order to exercise their right to vote. An earlier pilot project to register Bangladeshi voters in Malaysia in 2019 was put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic, although in May 2023, the country's Election Commission began registering voters in the United Arab Emirates through its missions in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.Belgium
As of 2017, Belgian citizens living abroad can register to vote for elections to the Chamber of Representatives and the European Parliament. Once registered in a consular post, the person is subject to compulsory voting. Expatriates cannot vote in regional or local elections.The very first legislation regarding eligible Belgians abroad was implemented during 1919–25 to accommodate Belgian military stationed in German territories after World War I. Their votes were cast on an earlier date and sent to their corresponding electoral district in Belgium.
The first modern law, the law of 18 December 1998, gave Belgians living abroad the right to vote in federal elections. However, the law was inadequate and not generally applied.
The law of 7 March 2002 improved the procedure. Belgians abroad could register in a municipality of their choice, determining the constituency in which their vote would be cast. In practice, most votes were cast in the linguistically sensitive Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde constituency.
The sixth Belgian state reform, which also abolished the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde constituency and direct Senate elections, replaced the free choice by an objectively defined municipality.
The law of 17 November 2016 slightly changed the procedure, and also extended the right to vote for European Parliament elections to Belgians living in a non-EU member state. Belgians living in another EU member state already had the right to vote on Belgian lists in European Parliament elections.
On 26 August 2016, the cabinet also approved the right to vote in regional elections; however, this change is subject to approval by special majority in parliament, causing the measure to stall.