Why Your Local Time Is the One That Matters
Every fax deadline for the November 3, 2026 general election is set in the time zone of your election office, not yours. That sounds obvious until you are in Singapore and realize that "7 PM on Election Day" in Florida means 8 AM on Wednesday where you are, or you are in London and a California cutoff falls at 4 AM.
The tables below take the fax deadlines from FVAP's state guides and convert them into UTC and six cities where a lot of American voters live. If you are a military or overseas (UOCAVA) voter in one of the states that accepts a faxed ballot, find your row, read across, and write the time down somewhere you will see it.
Half price until Election Day: use the code BALLOT50 for 50% off any fax that carries the FVAP cover sheet through November 3, 2026. It is applied for you when you add the sheet in the unofax send form, so a 10-page ballot costs about US$2.07.
Disclaimer: This is general information, not legal or election advice. unofax is a fax service and does not run elections. The deadlines come from FVAP's 2026-2027 state guides. Confirm yours on FVAP.gov or with your county election office, whose rules always win.
A Quick Note on Daylight Saving
Clocks are moving on both sides of the Atlantic this fortnight, which is exactly when people get caught out.
- Europe went back an hour on Sunday, October 25, 2026.
- The United States goes back an hour on Sunday, November 1, 2026.
- Australia moved forward on October 4 and stays on daylight time through the election.
By Election Day the US and Europe are both on standard time, so every conversion below is correct for November 3. If you send between October 25 and October 31, the gap between Europe and the US is one hour less than the table shows. Arizona and Hawaii do not change their clocks at all.
Fax Deadlines Converted, Grouped by Cutoff
Most states set a "received by" deadline at close of polls. States with the same moment in UTC are grouped together. All times in the city columns are on Wednesday, November 4, unless marked Tue, which means Tuesday, November 3.
| UTC cutoff | States (office time) | London | Berlin / Paris | Dubai | Singapore / Hong Kong | Tokyo / Seoul | Sydney |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23:00 Tue | Indiana (6 PM ET) | 11 PM Tue | Midnight | 3 AM | 7 AM | 8 AM | 10 AM |
| 00:00 | Florida, South Carolina (7 PM ET); Indiana counties on Central time (6 PM CT) | Midnight | 1 AM | 4 AM | 8 AM | 9 AM | 11 AM |
| 00:30 | North Carolina, West Virginia (7:30 PM ET) | 12:30 AM | 1:30 AM | 4:30 AM | 8:30 AM | 9:30 AM | 11:30 AM |
| 01:00 | Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts (8 PM ET); Missouri, Oklahoma (7 PM CT) | 1 AM | 2 AM | 5 AM | 9 AM | 10 AM | Noon |
| 02:00 | Iowa, Nebraska (8 PM CT, 7 PM MT in western Nebraska); New Mexico (7 PM MT) | 2 AM | 3 AM | 6 AM | 10 AM | 11 AM | 1 PM |
| 03:00 | Nevada (7 PM PT); Montana (sent by 8 PM MT) | 3 AM | 4 AM | 7 AM | 11 AM | Noon | 2 PM |
| 04:00 | California, Washington (8 PM PT) | 4 AM | 5 AM | 8 AM | Noon | 1 PM | 3 PM |
| 05:00 | Alaska (8 PM Alaska time); Hawaii (7 PM HST) | 5 AM | 6 AM | 9 AM | 1 PM | 2 PM | 4 PM |
Florida's panhandle counties are on Central time, so their 7 PM cutoff is an hour later, at 01:00 UTC. If your county sits on a time zone line, check which side your election office is on.
Remember that some of these states only take a fax in certain situations. California and Florida accept it only from voters outside the US, Iowa and Missouri limit it to service members in hostile fire areas, Alaska needs you to have received your ballot electronically, and Nebraska needs prior approval. The state-by-state guide for November 3 has the full conditions.
States Without a Listed Time
For Arizona, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Dakota and Oregon, FVAP's guide gives the date but not a time. Colorado's rule is "sent by" November 3, while the others are "received by" or simply November 3. Rhode Island and Texas leave the deadline to the local office.
If you are registered in one of these, email or call your county election office and ask for the exact cutoff. Until you hear back, assume the earliest plausible moment, which is close of polls in your county, and plan to be finished a day before that.
Work Backwards from the Cutoff
A deadline is the last moment a fax can land, not a target. Three things eat into it on Election Day:
- Busy lines. Many county offices have one fax line, and on November 3 a lot of voters are trying it at once. unofax keeps retrying a busy number, but every retry is time you no longer have.
- Long packets. A 12-page ballot with the declaration and cover sheet takes several minutes to transmit even when the line is free.
- A missing page you only spot at the end. A forgotten signature means printing, signing and scanning again.
So set your own deadline. A good rule is to send at least 24 hours before the cutoff in your table row. For a voter in Tokyo faxing to North Carolina, that means sending by about 9:30 AM on Tuesday, November 3, local time, which is still Monday evening in Raleigh. Better still, send this week.
If you want the fax to arrive during office hours so a person sees it straight away, you can schedule the fax up to seven days ahead. Schedule it for the morning in your county, not for the deadline.
What to Send and How
The packet is the same whatever time zone you are in: the signed FVAP Transmission Cover Sheet with its secrecy waiver, your signed voter declaration, every page of the ballot, and any extra forms your state asks for. Scan it into one PDF with your phone, upload it at unofax.com, choose the FVAP ballot cover sheet, enter your county's fax number and check the preview before you pay.
Through November 3, a fax carrying the FVAP cover sheet is half price with the code BALLOT50, which is applied for you when you use the cover sheet in the send form. A 10-page ballot comes to A$2.95, about US$2.07. Keep the delivery confirmation. Its timestamp is your proof that the ballot arrived before the cutoff, whatever your own clock said.
The Bottom Line
Find your state in the table, read across to your city, and then subtract a day. If you are faxing from Europe your cutoff is in the small hours of Wednesday morning, and from Asia or Australia it is sometime on Wednesday morning or early afternoon. None of that matters if you send early. When you are ready, fax your ballot from your browser, and if your ballot has not arrived yet, read our guide to filling out and faxing the FWAB.