US postal votes from France are possible – with perseverance

A Connexion reader shared how she and her husband successfully posted their US election ballots from a small French commune, after reading about difficulties experienced by other Americans living in France.

Dear Editor,

I was somewhat surprised by the American complaints in your article about voting from France.

My husband and I moved here three years ago. After navigating the US bureaucracy to register to vote from overseas, we had to buy a printer to print our ballots for the national elections two years ago. 

We dusted it off again this year, as it is the only time we ever need to print anything, and went through the process once more.

After requesting our ballots by email, we were able to print them, along with the makeshift envelope and other necessary documentation. 

When I took everything to our local La Poste, I had no trouble mailing the ballots. However, they needed to be placed in another envelope, rather than simply using the US envelope we had printed, as it sounds like your other reader tried to do by adding stamps to it.

Our local La Poste did explain that packages and boxes could not be sent to the US due to tariffs, but letters were no problem. 

We therefore purchased a €12 airmail envelope at the counter, placed our ballots inside and sent them to our local election office in the US. Although this was more expensive than basic postage, it also offered the advantage of tracking.

I have since tracked our ballots and can confirm that they arrived safely. So, while it may require a little extra effort and expense, it is certainly possible to vote by post from our small commune. This makes me sceptical of claims that it could not be done in a city as large as Nice.

Yours faithfully,

N.M