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Residents of Puerto Rico, Guam, Virgin Islands, and Northern Mariana Islands are US citizens. Citizens of American Samoa are nationals and must register when they are habitual residents in the United States or reside in the US for at least one year. Habitual residence is presumed and registration is required whenever a national or a citizen of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, or Palau, resides in the United States for more than one year in any status, except when the individual resides in the US as an employee of the government of his homeland; or as a student who entered the US for the purpose of full-time studies, as long as such person maintains that status.

In last year’s presidential election, 3.5 million Americans were denied the fundamental right to

vote for our nation’s president: the citizens of U.S. territories – 98 percent of whom are racial or

ethnic minorities. Both the Democratic and Republican National Committees permit these

citizens to participate in the nomination of their candidates for President and Vice President.

Further, residents of U.S. territories are able to vote for nonvoting delegates within the U.S.

House. But, for most citizens of the United States who choose to live in the U.S. Virgin Islands,

Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, or American Samoa, their participation ends

there. Based solely on place of residence, Americans who live in the territories are denied voting

representation in either house of Congress, even though Congress possesses plenary authority

over local territorial matters, according to the testimony of Neil Weare.

Although virtually all residents of these five territories are systematically disenfranchised,federal and state laws permit certain individuals who previously resided in one of the 50 states orthe District of Columbia who then move to one of the territories to continue to vote, by absenteeballot, in elections in their former state of residence. The most notable of these laws is the federalUniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), which mandates that all 50states and the District of Columbia permit their former residents who move to either a foreigncountry or the Northern Mariana Islands to continue to vote in that state by absentee ballot.6While states retain the discretion to pass their own laws to permit former residents who move tothe U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Guam, or American Samoa to continue to vote by absenteeballot, most have not done so, and instead have only enacted laws implementing the mandatoryprovisions of the Uniformed and Overseas Absentee Voting Act