An important heads-up to all ex-pats:
Election day is today. For many states, absentee ballots have to be received by the elections offices by 4 November. If you are posting an absentee ballot from abroad, you need to mail it NOW.
If you have requested your state absentee ballot, but haven’t received it yet, all is not lost.
Details over the fold...
If you've requested an absentee ballot that hasn't turned up, you can vote using the Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot (FWAB), which you can download from www.votefromabroad.org or from the Federal Voting Assistance Program.
Do this today, and post it today! Read the instructions carefully; some states require witnesses, who may or may not need to be US citizens. There are also some quirks with how the ballot needs to be enveloped up. The votefromabroad.org link will ask for various bits of information, pre-populate the forms for you, and give you state-specific information.
If you do get your state ballot later, you can just send that back as normal – you’re not voting twice. They will check the FWABs against the list of received absentee ballots and not count the duplicates. The FWAB is just a back-up. But you can use it NOW to ensure your vote is counted.
One important point to note: to be valid, the FWAB must be posted from overseas – don’t give it to someone flying back to the States to drop in the mail for you.
www.votefromabroad.org