The General Assembly,
NOTICING that without the ability to vote while not in one’s home nation, citizens of a nation may be intentionally or unintentionally excluded from the political process,
DECRYING that the lack of uniform standards for the administration of elections for overseas electors might have deleterious effects on national election administration, hereby:
- Defines the following terms for the purposes of this law;
- ”Overseas voter” as a citizen of a nation which allows registered voters who are overseas to participate in national elections who has fulfilled all the requirements in national law in order to vote, who is not in aforementioned nation at the time of a national election, relevant by-election, and/or national referendum,
- Mandates that member nations;
- Coordinate hours of polling places, in this case consulates, embassies, or other sites as designated by national election officials, to ensure that overseas voters have the ability to cast their ballot,
- Clarifying that polling places must be open for the same hours as they are open in the nation conducting the national election, by-election, or referenda, subject to the time zone of the polling place's location,
- Harmonize counting methods so that votes can be scrutinized, counted, and released in compliance with previously standing legislation;
- Further mandates that nations regulate which boundaries overseas voters will vote under in elections, should they exist, noting that;
- Member nations may create or utilize “overseas constituencies” if they wish to for national elections;
- Instructs member nations to inform overseas voters what special requirements there are for overseas voters in terms of ballot receipt or security;
- Asserts that member states who are conducting elections ought to take the following steps in order to ensure overseas voters have the ability to vote in their nation of citizenship;
- Organize an effective method to ensure that all eligible overseas voters have the opportunity to vote, such as using a postal service to facilitate voting or using consular or embassy facilities as polling places,
- Organize counting centers for collated overseas votes that are able to follow the same timeline for counting as the national electorate and take into account any special requirements that are created under the terms of this law, though,
- Noting that member nations may choose to require receipt of overseas voters’ votes earlier than normal ballots would be received nationally, so that those votes can be counted, scrutinized, and returned on the same timeline as other voters' ballots are.
