With Election Day on November 8, time is running short to request an absentee ballot if you have not already done so. It can take a while for your request to reach local election officials in the United States and for them to process your request, so don’t wait until the last minute. Please refer to the frequently asked questions below for information about requesting and submitting a ballot to your home state. More information, including deadlines, is available at FVAP.gov, the website of the Federal Voting Assistance Program.
If you don’t receive your absentee ballot by mid-October, you may wish to instead submit a Federal Write-In Ballot (or “FWAB”), which can be printed from the FVAP website. If you submit a FWAB and then receive your state ballot, go ahead and submit the state ballot as well, and if local officials receive both, they’ll simply disregard your FWAB.
At this late date, the easiest and surest way to beat deadlines for sending voting materials to local election officials is through Royal Mail or an express delivery company. You can also drop your completed ballots off at the U.S. Embassy. However to ensure your ballot is delivered on time it must be received at the Embassy no later than Wednesday, October 12 by 8:00 a.m. We cannot guarantee on time delivery of ballots received after this time. Please remember that the U.S. Embassy in London and our consulates in Edinburgh and Belfast are not polling places, and there will be no in-person voting available on Election Day.
You can always contact us with questions about voting at LondonVote@state.gov.
Popular FAQs
- Can I vote in the 2016 U.S. federal elections and in which state should I register to vote?
- When should I request and submit my absentee ballot?
- If I requested an absentee ballot for my state primary, will I automatically receive one for the general election?
- How do I submit my registration, ballot request, and absentee ballot?
- What if I have not received my absentee ballot by mid-October?
- Will there be a polling station at the U.S. Embassy on Election Day?
