{"id":71533,"date":"2024-10-03T20:44:01","date_gmt":"2024-10-03T20:44:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/uncategorized\/2024\/10\/03\/trump-claims-dems-will-cheat-using-military-overseas-ballot-system\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T16:34:05","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T16:34:05","slug":"trump-claims-dems-will-cheat-using-military-overseas-ballot-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/news\/your-marine-corps\/2024\/10\/03\/trump-claims-dems-will-cheat-using-military-overseas-ballot-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump claims Dems will \u2018cheat\u2019 using military, overseas ballot system"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Former President Donald Trump claimed on social media last week that a law designed to ensure that service members and overseas Americans can vote<\/a> via absentee ballot will be used by Democrats to \u201ccheat\u201d in next month\u2019s presidential election, but experts knowledgeable about the process say that would be very difficult, if not impossible, given the nature of the system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s allegations involve the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, or UOCAVA<\/a>, a law protecting the rights of such groups to vote in federal elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Republican presidential nominee wrote on his Truth Social platform last week that Democrats are working to get millions of votes from overseas voters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cActually they are getting ready to CHEAT!\u201d Trump wrote. \u201cThey are going to use UOCAVA to get ballots, a program that emails ballots overseas without any citizenship check or verification of identity whatsoever.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump further alleged that Democrats \u201cwant to dilute the TRUE vote of our beautiful military and their families.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Former President Donald Trump claimed in a Sept. 23 Truth Social post that Democrats would cheat using military and overseas absentee ballots.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s post comes amid Republican concerns that absentee voting allows the potential for greater voter fraud, and for ballots to be cast by noncitizens. Some critics have also questioned the verification process for absentee ballots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No evidence has arisen of any widespread voter fraud<\/a> in the 2020 election, and some analysts warn that raising concerns about such systems without evidence decreases Americans\u2019 trust in their elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to UOCAVA voters, experts say it would be practically impossible to alter the vote tally in any meaningful way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While UOCAVA ensures the rights of overseas and military voters to cast their ballots, voter eligibility is determined by thousands of local election officials across the country who handle UOCAVA voter ballot requests and ballots separately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A soldier with a home of record in Hennepin County, Minnesota, for example, must contact the Hennepin County election office to register and request a ballot. A sailor with a home of record in Cobb County, Georgia, must contact the Cobb County election officer to register and request a ballot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As such, experts in the field say, any unified effort to steal or inflate the UOCAVA vote would be essentially impossible, given all the election offices involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re talking about ballots that go through 7,500 jurisdictions, where election officials can pinpoint erratic patterns,\u201d Susan Dzieduszycka-Suinat, president and CEO of the nonpartisan U.S. Vote Foundation<\/a>, told Military Times. \u201cTo be a fraudulent UOCAVA voter, you\u2019d have to come up with an identity of someone who lives in a certain place at a certain time, and had an address and their identification.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t