ARLINGTON, Va. -- On a ship? In a combat zone? On base? No matter where you are, you can vote.
If you’re active duty and living away from your voting residence, you can have your absentee ballot sent to you this election year.
Here’s how:
1. Register to vote and request your ballot with one form. It’s called the Federal Post Card Application (FPCA). You can get it at FVAP.gov or the Voting Assistance Office where you’re stationed. At https://www.fvap.gov/, select your State for all the info and materials you need. You can use FVAP’s online assistant to help fill out your FPCA. Or print it and fill it out by hand. Then send it to your local election official. Find the address at FVAP.gov to mail it. Or check if your State allows you to send it in by email or fax if that’s easier. For the General Election on November 8, plan to mail your FPCA by August 1, 2016 (or later depending on your State). Check https://www.fvap.gov/ for your State’s specific deadline. You have to send in a new FPCA every year to receive your absentee ballots for all 2016 elections — even if you’ve done it before.
2. Fill out and send in your ballot when it arrives.
Once you receive your ballot, fill it out and send it back to your local election official. Like the FPCA, you may be able to return your ballot by email or fax, so check what your State allows. For the General Election, you should receive your ballot by early October. And you should send it back by:
- November 1, 2016 if you’re stateside
- October 15, 2016 if you’re outside the U.S.
- October 10, 2016 if you’re on a ship at sea
If you don’t get your ballot by October 8, that’s no problem. Get a Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot (FWAB) from FVAP.gov or your Voting Assistance Office. Fill it out and send it like your regular ballot. After you send in your ballot, you can even check if it was received. Select your State at FVAP.gov to check the status of your ballot. he Federal Voting Assistance Program makes it that simple. Visit FVAP.gov; call 1- 800-438- VOTE; or email vote@fvap.gov to make sure you can vote from anywhere. Sign up for voting alerts at https://www.fvap.gov/ and check out FVAP’s Facebook https://www.facebook.com/DoDFVAP and Twitter https://twitter.com/FVAP.