When the FWAB Is the Right Form
States had to send absentee ballots to military and overseas voters by September 19, 45 days before the November 3, 2026 general election. If you asked for yours and it still has not turned up, the Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot (FWAB) is the form for you. It is a blank federal ballot you print, fill in yourself and send to your election office in place of the ballot that never came.
FVAP's advice is to stop waiting 30 days before the election. For this year that date was October 4. If you are reading this after that and you have no ballot, do not hold out for the post. Fill in the FWAB now, and if your real ballot shows up later, you can still send that as well.
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 about the FWAB, not legal or election advice. unofax is a fax service and does not run elections. Your state's FWAB instructions and your county election office have the final word, so check them on FVAP.gov before you send.
Who Can Use It
The FWAB is for voters covered by UOCAVA: members of the uniformed services and Merchant Marine, their eligible family members, and US citizens living outside the United States. In most states there is one more condition. You must already have registered and requested an absentee ballot, normally with the Federal Post Card Application (FPCA), before the deadline for doing so.
A few states go further and accept the FWAB as your registration, your ballot request and your vote all at once. If you never sent an FPCA this year, look up your state in the FWAB instructions to see whether that applies to you. If it does not, the FWAB will not count on its own, and the best you can do for this election is ask your county what options are left.
Getting the Form
There are two ways to get an FWAB, and both come from FVAP.gov:
- The online assistant. You answer questions about your state and address and it produces a completed PDF, including your election office's address and a list of the candidates on your ballot. This is the easiest route for most people.
- The blank PDF. Download the form with its instructions and fill it in by hand. Use this if you are offline, on a shared computer, or simply prefer pen and paper.
Either way, you end up printing it, because the declaration needs your signature.
Filling It In, Page by Page
The voter's declaration and affirmation
This page identifies you, and it is the one election offices check most carefully.
- Your name should match the name you registered under. If you have changed it since, give the old one as a previous name.
- Your voting residence is your last address in your state, the one your vote is based on. It is not where you live now abroad. If you have never lived in the US, use the address your state tells you to, usually a parent's.
- Your current address and contact details let the office reach you if something is wrong. Add an email address you check.
- Your ID number, such as a driver's license number or the last four digits of your Social Security number, if your state asks for one.
- Your signature and the date. You sign under penalty of perjury. Some states also want a witness to sign, so read your state's section before you put the pen down.
The ballot page
Here you vote. For each office, write the full name of the candidate you choose, or simply the name of their party. A party vote counts for that party's candidate. Every state lets you use the FWAB for federal offices, and many also accept it for state and local races, so check your state's instructions before you leave a line blank.
Do not write your name, signature or any identification number on the ballot page itself. That page is meant to be separable from the declaration so that, where possible, your vote stays private.
Returning It by Fax
If your state accepts a faxed ballot from UOCAVA voters, it almost always accepts a faxed FWAB on the same terms. With the mail as slow as it is this close to November 3, fax is often the only way an FWAB arrives in time.
Faxing means your choices and your identity travel together, so you also sign a secrecy waiver. That waiver is on the FVAP Transmission Cover Sheet, which goes in front of everything else. Your fax should contain, in this order:
- The FVAP Transmission Cover Sheet with the secrecy waiver signed.
- The signed voter's declaration and affirmation.
- The ballot page.
- Any extra pages your state requires.
To send it, scan everything into one PDF with your phone and open unofax.com. Choose the FVAP ballot cover sheet, enter your election office, write something like "FWAB for the November 3, 2026 general election" under additional information, and sign the waiver on screen. The cover sheet is added as page 1 for free. Enter your county's fax number, check every page in the preview, and pay.
Through November 3, faxes with the FVAP cover sheet are half price with the code BALLOT50, applied for you automatically, so a 4-page FWAB costs about A$1.18. If your office wants a handwritten signature on the waiver, use the free cover sheet generator instead, print it, sign it and scan it in with the rest.
FVAP no longer forwards faxes for voters, so send directly to your own county or local election office. Their fax number is in the FVAP directory or on the county's website. Keep the delivery confirmation as your proof.
Returning It by Mail
In states that do not take a faxed ballot, the FWAB goes by post. The instructions tell you to seal the ballot page in a security envelope, then put that envelope and the signed declaration into an outer envelope addressed to your election office. Overseas military voters can use the free Label 11-DoD express service at a military post office. Everyone else should use the fastest courier they can afford, because there is very little time left.
Even in a mail-only state, the FPCA can usually be faxed, which helps for future elections. For more on that, see our guide to faxing a ballot, FPCA or FWAB from overseas.
If Your Real Ballot Turns Up Later
Fill it in and send it anyway. Your election office will count only one ballot. In general, if your regular ballot arrives in time, it is the one that counts, and if it does not, your FWAB stands in for it. Sending both is not voting twice. It is exactly what the system is built for.
The Bottom Line
If your ballot has not arrived, do not wait for it. Get the FWAB from FVAP.gov, match your name to your registration, sign the declaration, write in your choices by name or party, and send it. Where your state allows fax, fax it with the FVAP cover sheet and keep the confirmation. To check your state's last moment, see our table of ballot fax deadlines in your local time.