We strongly encourage you to register to vote and/or request absentee ballots as early in an election year as possible to ensure that you will receive all ballots for which you are eligible. Should questions or problems occur, you would still be able to address them in time to vote in the general elections.
The following is the basic absentee voting process:- You complete an application form (see below) and send it to local election officials in the U.S.
- The local official approves your request, or contacts you for further information
- The local official sends you an absentee ballot
- You vote the ballot and send it back in time to meet your state's deadline
The official US Government website for overseas absentee
voting assistance is the Federal Voting Assistance Program
website at www.fvap.gov.
It has a wealth of information about absentee voting, including
the downloadable absentee ballot application, state-specific
instructions for completing the form, links to state and local
officials, and a downloadable emergency ballot.
To register to vote and to request an absentee ballot,
download the Federal Post Card Application at http://www.fvap.gov/pubs/ofwab.pdf.
You can also obtain this form from overseas American citizens
groups or from the U.S. Embassy/Consulate. Fill it out and
send it in, following the guidelines for your state. A postage-paid
envelope template, valid if you are using the U.S. postal
system, is available at http://www.fvap.gov/pubs/returnenvelope.pdf.
Each state has different voting procedures.
Information about your state's procedures is available at
http://www.fvap.gov/links/statelinks.html.
Information about your state's deadlines to register and vote,
as well as calendar of election dates, is available at http://www.fvap.gov/pubs/primarycal.html.
States sometimes make last-minute changes.
There may be late changes to your state's voting calendar,
procedures or deadlines. When these occur, the Federal Voting
Assistance Program (FVAP) will issue a News Release. News
Releases are available at http://www.fvap.gov/pubs/releases.html.
Be an educated voter. Non-partisan information
about candidates, their voting records, and their positions
on issues is widely available and easy to obtain via the Internet.
Use the links appearing on the Federal Voting Assistance Program
website at http://www.fvap.gov/links/electionlinks.html,
or choose any one of several search engines to locate articles
and information.
The Voting Assistance Officer at the U.S.
Embassy in Mexico City is available to answer questions about
absentee voting. To contact the Voting Assistance Officer,
call (55) 5080-2000 x 4131 or send an e-mail to ccs@usembassy.net.mx.
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