Pennsylvania Military and Overseas Voters, Request your Ballot for the May 18, 2010 State Primary Now!
On May 18 Pennsylvania voters will cast ballots for candidates for a variety of offices, including governor, lieutenant governor, state senator and representative, U.S. senator and U.S. representative.
If you are eligible to vote in this election, and requested and received a ballot for the November 4, 2008 presidential election, you should have received an absentee ballot by now, unless your mailing address has changed.
Request Your Ballot
If you do not have one on file, you need to fill out an absentee ballot request as soon as possible. The Federal Post Card Application (FPCA) ballot application and instructions are available at www.fvap.gov.
Send your FPCA NOW to ensure you have enough time to receive, vote, and return the ballot! An application for an absentee ballot may be downloaded from the Federal Voting Assistance Program www.fvap.gov or the Department of State Web site at www.votespa.com. When complete, it must be mailed to the Board of Elections of the county where the military member legally resides. However, to ensure prompt delivery of an absentee ballot, military members are strongly urged to fax or e-mail a copy of the signed application to their County Board of Elections in addition to sending it by mail. The absentee ballot will be mailed to the military member promptly upon receipt of the fax or e-mail.
Under the Pennsylvania Election Code, requests that are made by fax or e-mail still require that a signed paper application for the absentee ballot is received prior to the Primary Election Day. An original signature is required by law.
The ballot request deadline is May 17, 2010. Note that these dates do not take into account mail delivery times required to receive and return your ballot by Election Day. You should not wait to complete and submit your FPCA, especially if you are completing the process by mail from an overseas location.
You may fax or e-mail your request for an absentee ballot. It is recommended that you fax or e-mail the form directly to your local election official (fax numbers and e-mail addresses can be found on the Pennsylvania website at http://votespa.com).
Receive and Return Your Ballot
Local election officials send overseas ballots approximately 45 days before the election. If you are overseas and want to receive your blank ballot by fax or e-mail, you must mark this preference on your FPCA or personally contact your local County Board of Elections office by e-mail or phone. Otherwise, the ballot will be mailed to you.
Recommended Mailing Dates for Your Voted Ballot
Completed absentee ballots must be postmarked no later than May 17, 2010. Voted absentee ballots from members of the military must be postmarked no later than 5 p.m. on Monday, May 17, and received by the County Board of Elections by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, May 25.
Although these are the deadlines for receiving your ballot, you should mail your ballot by the following dates to account for mail delivery times.
· From Operation Enduring/Iraqi Freedom Locations/Deployed Navy Vessels: April 24, 2010
· From Other Overseas Military Installations: May 1, 2010
· From Other Overseas Locations: May 1, 2010 (or earlier, depending on foreign mail service)
· From Within the United States: May 15, 2010
To make sure your ballot arrives by the deadline, vote and return your ballot IMMEDIATELY upon receiving it!
Use the Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot (FWAB)
If you reside in the 12th Congressional District (Counties of Allegheny, Armstrong, Cambria, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Somerset, Washington and Westmoreland) and requested your ballot prior to April 19, you may use the Federal Write-in Absentee Ballot to vote in the special General Election that will also be held along with the Primary Election on May 18, 2010. Everything you need to complete a FWAB is available at www.fvap.gov; just follow the instructions for using the FWAB in Pennsylvania. The FWAB is also available from your Voting Assistance Officer. You can find a candidate list or what is included on the ballot by going to www.votespa.com.
For More Information: For more information on voter registration, call the Department of State’s toll-free hotline at 1-877-VOTESPA (1-877-868-3772), or visit www.votespa.com or visit FVAP at: www.fvap.gov.
We Want Your Feedback! If this document was helpful to you or if you ran into problems or have questions, please contact FVAP at 1-800-438-8683, DSN (312) 425-1584, or at vote@fvap.ncr.gov. Toll-free phone numbers from 67 countries are listed at: www.fvap.gov/contact/tollfreephone.html. With your feedback, we can make this even more helpful for the next election.
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