American citizens overseas living in Switzerland must usually register EVERY election year with the voter’s registrar in the state where they last lived in the US. This is true even if you no longer own property or have any remaining connection to that state.
This is considered your voting residence. Register and request your absentee ballot with the Federal Post Card Application (FPCA) using this address.
You can check your state on www.VoteFromAbroad.org.There is a chat feature where you get support from expert volunteers. This is the recommended site to help you fill out the FPCA, and file it with your local election official in your voting state. In addition to offering one-on-one help for voter questions, the site also offers details on expat voting for your state: Deadlines for submitting FPCAs, the same for ballots, and contact information for your local election official. As well as a comprehensive FAQ section.
DATES: Once your FPCA is received by your local election official, they will email you your absentee ballot by 21 September 2024, which is 45 days before the 5 November 2024 election. You may submit an FPCA after that, and they will quickly send your ballot, but some states have early-October deadlines for FPCA submission.
All states allow you to receive your ballot by email when filling out the FPCA, but you must usually request it each year. Some states allow electronic voting or returning your ballot by email, but some require you to physically mail it by postal service.
If a voter has reached voting age (18) while living abroad, but they have never lived in the US, they usually can register to vote from the same address that their parents last resided — but not for all states.
I'm already a registered voter (or my state always sends my blank ballot). Why should I send in the FPCA form?
Even if you vote in a state that typically sends out a ballot without an annual request, we still urge all overseas voters to send in the form to request a ballot every year to make sure you will be able to vote.
However, if you don’t want to send in the form, it’s still very important that you email or call your Local Election Official to verify that you will be getting a ballot this year. Mistakes can happen and states can change their voting rules! Every election we hear from voters who find out too late that they won’t be able to vote because they missed the deadline to request their ballot.
And remember, an FPCA form, sent in the calendar year of an election, protects your ballot at the federal level in case of a recount.
You can look up the contact information for your Local Election Official here: www.VoteFromAbroad.org/states (scroll down to “Find Your Election Office”).
Each state can have different rules SO IT IS IMPORTANT TO ACT QUICKLY.
