Excellent question!
This is a very good time to be voting as an overseas or military voter. The process has been reformed and streamlined over the past 15 years and is now one of the most modern voting programs in the United States.
As an overseas or military voter, you will be able to take advantage of many online services from online registration and ballot request, to online ballot receipt and ballot tracking. In addition, Voter Help Desk services and detailed FAQs are available to answer every question and personally guide you through the process.
There are three fundamental steps to voting from abroad:
- Step 1: Register and request your ballot as an overseas or military voter. Your election office does not know you are away from your regular voting home until you tell them. To do that, you can generate and submit your registration / ballot request form on our website and submit it to your election office. One form takes care of both actions simultaneously. (Note that the form is often referred to as the "FPCA").
- Step 2: Receive your blank ballot and vote. In the ballot request process, you will specify whether you would like to receive your blank ballot electronically, or by post. If you choose to receive your ballot online, be prepared to print the ballot for marking and return.
- Step 3: Return your voted ballot to your election office. In general, whenever possible, we recommend that you go to the local post office to have your ballot properly stamped with an overseas postmarked and weighed for the correct postage. If local post is not reliable or non-existent and you plan to give your ballot to someone to take back to the US and mail from there, please try first to check on with your election office to confirm if that is permitted.
For further information:
Please see our “Step-by-Step Guide to Overseas Voting” which is dedicated to explaining the overseas voting process.