Biden Admin Allows Iran to Set Up Absentee Voting Stations in U.S.

The Biden administration is allowing Iran to run absentee voting stations in the United States for the upcoming Iranian presidential election on June 28.

Iranian Foreign Ministry official Alireza Mahmoundi recently told state media that Iran will set up over 30 ballot stations across America. Ballot boxes will be located at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington and in New York, as well as potentially U.S. and British hotel companies and Islamic centers.

Who will run the stations was not disclosed.

Sanctions: Businesses working with Iran will need to be granted licenses to avoid U.S. sanctions. According to Brian O’Toole, a former senior adviser in the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, this is a “gray area.”

Despite the Iranian government’s issues with elections, the U.S. has a clear interest in promoting democracy. What this administration probably would lean toward is the principle that people who are eligible to vote [in Iran’s election] should make the decision as to whether they should or should not.
—Brian O’Toole

The U.S. State Department told Voice of America in a statement on Friday that “it has no expectation that Iran’s presidential election will be free or fair”

The U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey estimates that nearly half a million Iranians are in the U.S.

Connections: The U.S. allowed Iran to set up ballot stations for previous elections as well, but Iran has grown increasingly undemocratic and anti-American.

“The decision … has sparked outrage among critics who view it as legitimizing the Islamic Republic’s ‘authoritarian rule,’” wrote Iran International.

Yet the Biden administration, following the path established by Barack Obama’s government, continues to support Iran.

Learn more: Read America Under Attack.