How to Vote in the USA Presidential Elections When You're Living Abroad - Overseas Voters in Taiwan

Also: how to PRINT and FAX at a convenience store in Taiwan!

The first time I printed something at my local convenience store here in Taipei, I clapped like a seal because it was SO easy. Oh man, I love how ACTUALLY convenient convenience stores are here in Taiwan / Asia in general - what a novelty isn’t it? In the US, we have to drive to the 7-11 which isn’t actually anywhere nearby, inhale some weird gas fumes and look at weird, rubbery, rotating hot dogs while browsing through off-brand potato chips (all to get a Slurpee, let’s be real). Ok, that was kind of a weird diversion and segue into how to vote in the wonderful US of A but here we are, rubbery hot dogs and all, it’s time to vote in the November 2020 Presidential Elections. Leggo.

Let me break down the basic overseas voter registration process for citizens of the USA living abroad and then I’ll get into some Taiwan-specifics to help you guys navigate the ibon kiosk machine!

Step One: Register as an overseas voter by completing the FPCA

Check out the Overseas Citizen Voter page at the Federal Voting Assistance Program website HERE

This website breaks down what you’re eligible for by the permanent address you have on file as a citizen. You have to first fill out the FPCA (Federal Post Card Application) as an absentee voter in order to receive the ballot. Choose your jurisdiction, your ballot classification, your personal information, residence, current address, choose if you’d like to receive a ballot by email vs. mail/fax and then go ahead and print out the FPCA package. A printer is required to finish this step and to register as an absentee voter. You can either mail this package, fax it or send to your jurisdiction’s email address - which is what I did. The deadlines are very clear as to when each step must be completed, so make sure you pay attention to how much time you have before faxing, mailing or emailing. This is just the first step and is NOT your actual ballot.

Step Two: Print & email/mail/fax FPCA to your local official

Alright, time to head to our convenience store! I went to 7-11 which has a super easy to use ibon printing machine. Here’s what the kiosk looks like (pic on the right)! You can do this section entirely in English, whoot whoot.

Click on the purple star button that says English
Click on Picture / Print Document
Insert your storage device (usb) or email your document (I attach it as a PDF file) to the email address: ibon@ibon.com.tw. You’ll receive an email back in maybe 1 minute max with the document file number and QR code. The email should look like the below photo (email in green) when you receive it.
From here, you can either scan the QR code on your phone or enter the document file number in red. (I erased mine for privacy purposes) The QR code doesn’t usually work for me for some reason so I go with typing in my document number and it pops up right away.
Confirm your printing settings, the details of the file and the total cost and click confirm!
A small pop-up will alert you that you need to tell the clerk to accept the printing job. Signal the worker and they will accept the job.
Grab your documents, bring the receipt over to the cashier and pay for the printed documents (3 NT or $0.10 USD per page)

Step Three: Fax/Mail/Email your FPCA to your local official

This part was pretty easy! Fortunately, the FPCA can be emailed to your local official. (Unfortunately, the official ballot cannot be emailed)

My FPCA specified the email address that I needed to send it to right on the top of the cover page, so be sure to check that. I attached it as an image directly in the email and sent it over to the address. I sent mine to my local official (military overseas email address) on July 23 and received a response from the office saying they received it on August 28. Be patient!

Step Four: Receiving the Official Ballot by email (LA County)

I received the official November 3, 2020 General Election email on September 20 with a link to the Military and Overseas Electronic Ballot for LA County that would be only available after September 24. After opening up the link, I was directed to a separate site that confirmed that you are a Military or Overseas registered voter with this description:

To use the Military and Overseas Ballot you must be one of the following: an active duty member of the Uniformed Services, Merchant Marine, or commissioned corps of the Public Health Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; an eligible spouse or family member of an active duty member of the Uniformed Services, Merchant Marine, or commissioned corps of the Public Health Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; or a United States citizen residing outside the United States.

I opened up the electronic ballot, chose my selections for local, state and county officials, as well as state and county measures, and then it was time for the grand finale. I went to the last page of the ballot to choose my selections for president, and saw… Kanye? Wait, Kanye’s on my state’s ballot? Lol. (see pic below for proof)

Alright, I’ve chosen all of my selections and now it’s time to print this out again and fax or mail to my local official. Let’s go back to 7-11!

Step Five: Print out the official ballot

Hello, again old friend! We’re back at 7-11, you know the drill. Follow the aforementioned steps and we’re on the path to being a good citizen. We’ve printed it all out, signed the papers, and now it’s time to go fax the darned thing. FAXING. I know, right. Does anyone even use fax machines anymore? Okay, well our government apparently still does.

Back to 7-11. (Disregard if mailing)

Step Six: Fax the ballot and ballot oath page to your election official

Alright, final step… here we go. I’ve done the whole 跑來跑去 (back and forth) to 7-11, we’re now BFFs and share secrets with each other over 泡麵 (instant noodles) and 冷泡茶 (cold brew tea). It’s time to do the fax thing.

I head over to the ibon kiosk machine and… no fax option. Let me just say, this is a magical machine and should be treated with utmost respect. I can order high speed rail and train tickets with it, movie tickets, look for jobs, find a husband (ok maybe not this one) idk, basically everything under the sun. But this time - this one requires an actual human.

I tell the kind worker that I need to 傳真 (chuan2 zhen1: fax) and give her the phone number to my local official’s office that was listed on the cover page for my ballot. MAKE SURE to include the country code (002) for USA and also (1) before the actual fax number of the office.

002-1-xxx-xxx-xxxx. Super important! Don’t forget this or else it won’t arrive and won’t be counted and we will not be good citizens.

She takes care of the rest - I wait for all four pages to be sent through and see the check mark for a successful transfer, and then I grab the print out and take it over to the counter. Each page is 80 NT ($2.67 USD) which is PRICEY let me tell you but it’s because it’s an international fax and I probably won’t have to do this again anytime soon (hopefully). It cost me 320 NT ($10.67 USD) in total to vote from Taiwan. It should be cheaper to mail, but it might not arrive in time / get lost / get eaten by a dog or something so in this case, it might just be worth it to bite the bullet and fax it over. I rewarded myself with an m&m ice cream cookie sandwich (which I’ve never seen before) in place of an “I Voted!” sticker this time around - the most American looking thing I could find in the ice cream section at Family Mart. (yep, I faxed and printed at 7-11 and then went to buy ice cream at Family Mart… they have a better ice cream selection okay!)

Hope this helps someone or maybe will serve as a antiquated relic in the future when kids ask me what a fax machine is! Get to voting people, your vote counts. If I can do it from Taiwan, you can do it from anywhere.