One form registers you to vote and requests your absentee ballot at the same time. Send it early, send it every year, and send it to your county election office rather than to FVAP.
📠 Fax Your FPCA From $2.99The Federal Post Card Application (FPCA, Standard Form 76) both registers you to vote and requests your absentee ballot in a single form. Every military and overseas voter should send one at the start of each calendar year, or at least 45 days before an election. It goes directly to your county or local election official, never to FVAP. Where your state permits, you can fax it. Once processed, states must send your blank ballot no later than 45 days before a federal election, which is why UOCAVA voters usually get their ballots before anyone else.
The State Department's advice is to submit your FPCA at the beginning of the calendar year, or at least 45 days before an election. Doing it in January rather than October is the single biggest thing you can do to make sure your ballot arrives in time.
An FPCA is generally valid for the calendar year in which you send it, and several states extend that further. Florida, for example, treats a request as good for all elections through the end of the calendar year of the second ensuing regularly scheduled general election. Virginia treats an FPCA as valid for the year it is submitted and through the end of the following year.
Send a new one every year regardless, and send one whenever you move.
Once your FPCA is processed, federal law works in your favour. Under UOCAVA as amended by the MOVE Act, states must transmit requested absentee ballots to military and overseas voters no later than 45 days before a federal election.
Domestic voters wait longer. In Florida's August 2026 primary, ballots went to military and overseas voters in early July while domestic vote-by-mail ballots went out between 9 and 16 July. That head start of one to two weeks exists specifically to allow for the round trip, and it is only available to people who applied in time.
The part of the form that confuses people most is the voting residence address, because it is not where you live now.
For military voters it is usually your last address in your state of legal residence. For overseas citizens it is usually the last place you lived before moving abroad. You do not need to own it, and you do not need any current tie to it. The address exists to determine which jurisdiction you vote in, not to say where you can be reached.
Two rules to follow: do not use a PO Box in that section, and put your current mailing address separately so your election office can actually reach you.
Most states accept a driver's licence number or the last four digits of your Social Security number. New Mexico, Tennessee and Virginia require the full Social Security number.
Most states require you to name a political party to vote in a primary, and that information may be used to register you with that party.
Give a phone number and email with the country code, and do not use a DSN number. Election officials use those details when something on the form needs clarifying, and an unreachable applicant is an application that stalls.
Sign it. A paper voter registration application needs an original signature, which is why the form is printed, signed, then scanned or photographed rather than typed and sent.
To your county or local election official. Never to FVAP. FVAP does not process applications, and its fax relay service closed in August 2025, so any guide telling you to fax FVAP is out of date.
Accepted methods vary by state: mail, email, and fax are the usual options, and some states accept an online submission. Where you have a choice, fax gives you a timestamped transmission record that an email attachment does not.
Find your election office through FVAP.gov's state pages, which list contact details including fax numbers for each jurisdiction.
In twenty-five states and territories, you cannot use the Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot unless you already registered and requested a ballot. Sending the FPCA in January is what unlocks that safety net in October. Our guide to the FWAB covers how the backup works.
Send it to your county election office for $2.99 and keep the timestamped confirmation as proof of when you applied.
📠 Fax Your FPCA From $2.99