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Voting While Outside the Country

If you are a U.S. service member, a voting age family member residing with a U.S. service member, or a U.S. citizen residing outside of the United States you may vote by absentee ballot in general, special, primary, and runoff elections.

Your state must comply with the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (“UOCAVA”) and has an office specifically reserved for the concerns of absent and overseas service voters. If for any reason your state rejects your application or request for an absentee ballot under the UOCAVA, the state must provide you with reasons for the rejection.

Federal Write-In Absentee Ballots

Federal write-in absentee ballots are also available but they can only be used in general elections for Federal office when you apply for an absentee ballot but do not receive one in time from your State.

REMEMBER: You can use a back up Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot if you are a voter who requested their ballot by their state deadline but did not received the absentee ballot to vote. Visit http://www.fvap.gov/ to learn more about federal write-in absentee ballots.

Completing Federal write-in absentee ballots

When you complete a Federal write-in absentee ballot you may either write in the name of the candidate or the name of the party to demonstrate your selection. Your write in ballot will not be rejected because of a minor variation or mistake. Instead, mistakes or variations will be ignored as long as your intention can be determined.

Your completed ballot must be received by the appropriate state election official by your state’s specific absentee voting deadline.

Use an official post card form to register to vote and request an absentee ballot

For your convenience, the official post card form is both a voter registration application and an absentee ballot application. You can find an official post card form here: http://www.fvap.gov/