If you are eligible to vote in California, you can qualify as a "military or overseas voter" if you are absent from the county in which you are eligible to vote and you are:
- A member of the active or reserve components of the United States Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, or Coast Guard; a Merchant Marine; a member of the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps; a member of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Corps of the United States; or a member on activated status of the National Guard or state militia;
- A spouse or dependent of a person described above; or
- A U.S. citizen living outside of the territorial limits of the U.S. or D.C.
A military or overseas voter has the right to register for, and to vote by, a vote-by-mail ballot in any California election, including any general, special, or primary election for any federal or statewide office or state ballot measure, as well as in any local contest held in the California precinct in which the voter was a resident when they last lived within the territorial limits of the U.S. or D.C. or, for a citizen born outside of the U.S., in the California precinct in which the citizen's parent or legal guardian resided when the parent or legal guardian last lived within the territorial limits of the U.S. or D.C.
