Hamadeh Discusses New Bill to Tighten Non-Military Overseas Voting

Representative Abe Hamadeh (R-AZ) discussed a new bill he intends to introduce during a recent appearance on James T. Harris' Conservative Circus radio show aimed at tightening laws surrounding American expats voting.

Rep. Hamadeh posted the discussion clip to X (formerly Twitter), saying, "This morning, Congressman Hamadeh joined The Conservative Circus with @JamesTHarris to talk about his latest election integrity legislation: The Preserving Residency for Overseas Voter Eligibility (Prove) Act."

"Election security is national security," Rep. Hamadeh began within the clip, "and what I discovered is that our elections have been compromised for so long."

As the Arizona Congressman explained, the 1986 Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) was initially designed to allow military servicemembers to vote while deployed overseas.

"However, over the years, it shifted to having expats, so Americans who live overseas, and now only 14% of UOCAVA is actually military members," Hamadeh continued. "So UOCAVA primarily serves expats who may not even have been in the United States for decades, or may not have ever lived in our country, and they are able to affect the outcomes of our elections."

Thus, the PROVE Act requires Americans living overseas to provide proof of residency in a state to vote. If they cannot prove residency, their vote is tallied as being from Washington, D.C.

"Because, of course, they are still American, so they should be able to vote, but they should not be able to vote in any state that they choose," said the Arizona Congressman, pointing out that overseas voters primarily claim residence in swing states such as Arizona, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Georgia, and a majority of these overseas voters are apparently Democrats.

Host James Harris asked why, if this issue has been so prevalent for so long, only now has it been brought to attention by Hamadeh, who answered, "Unfortunately, we got so complacent, and the Democrats took what was supposed to be a noble cause, which is to make voting easier for military members, they manipulate the system to try to hijack our election."

The PROVE Act is the latest election integrity measure introduced by the Arizona Congressman, with his most recent being House Resolution 3040, which aims to ban ranked-choice voting.