3. I haven't received my ballot yet, what should I do?

States must start sending out overseas ballots 45 days before an upcoming federal election to anyone with a ballot request on file. If there are fewer than 45 days before the election and you haven't received your ballot yet:

Have you submitted your ballot request form for this year (the Federal Post Card Application, or FPCA)? If not, please do that right away. VoteFromAbroad will assist you in filling out and submitting your FPCA to your Local Election Official in the US.

If you have submitted your ballot request form for this year, have you confirmed with your Local Election Official that they received it and will be sending you a ballot? Only your election office can process your form and sent out your ballot. If you used VFA to fill out your form, then the applicable contact information is in the instructions provided with your completed FPCA. You can also find the contact information in "Your State Rules" (select your state, then scroll down to "Find Your Election Office").

If you haven't submitted your FPCA form yet, or if your election office says they didn't receive it, use VoteFromAbroad to fill out and submit your FPCA form right away.

Or, if you confirmed with your election office that they sent your ballot to you and you requested it be sent by email, please check your secondary inboxes and your Spam folder. Ballots are not always clearly marked as such. And double-check that you're looking at the inbox for the correct email address!

If you requested your ballot be sent to you by mail, then it’s possible it was lost or has been delayed. We recommend that you use VoteFromAbroad to send in a new FPCA form right away and check the box to receive your ballot by email. Your ballot should go out within a few days of the election office receiving your form. 

Finally, if you don't see your ballot and the election is fewer than 21 days away, we recommend you also send in the Backup Ballot (the Federal Write-in Absentee Ballot, or FWAB). The Backup Ballot is specifically for overseas voters (or US based military voters) who may not receive their ballots in time to return it by the deadline. For detailed information about how to fill out and send in a Backup Ballot, please see "What is the Backup Ballot and how do I use it?"

Still have questions? Click on the red icon in the lower right corner to email our team.