Deadlines for voting in the US midterms

Americans go to the polls on Tuesday, November 3rd, in elections that fall halfway through Donald Trump’s second term as president.

All 435 seats in the House of Representatives are up for election, along with around a third of the Senate.

The result will decide whether Trump’s Republicans or the opposition Democrats control Congress – which will, in turn, determine how easily the president can carry out his plans for the rest of his term.

The midterms are also widely seen as the public’s verdict on the president’s performance so far.

If you’re a US citizen living in France, you can almost certainly take part. But the rules and the deadlines depend on the state you vote in – and some of those deadlines are days away.

Who can vote?

US citizens aged 18 or over who live outside the United States have the right to vote in all federal elections – that includes the midterms, and the primaries that precede them, as well as the presidential elections themselves.

You vote in the state where you last lived before leaving the US, which is known as your voting residence. It doesn’t matter how long ago you left, or whether you still have a home or family there.

Who can’t vote?

The main group at risk of missing out is US citizens who were born abroad and have never lived in the United States.

Many states do allow them to register using the last US address of an American parent – but not all, according to FVAP (the Federal Voting Assistance Program).

To find out if the state where you parents last lived accepts overseas voting registration, consult the list published by the FVAP.

How to vote in the midterms from France

There are two components to this: registering to vote and requesting an ‘absentee ballot’.

Overseas voters can do both things using a single one-page form – the Federal Post Card Application (FPCA).

You can fill it in on the official US government site, FVAP, or through the nonpartisan US Vote Foundation or Vote From Abroad, which is run by Democrats Abroad. Some states also let you register and request a ballot on their own election websites.

Organisations like Democrats Abroad and Republicans Abroad offer online information and sometimes run in-person voter advice sessions.

You only have to register once, but you have to request an ‘absentee ballot’ every calendar year in which you want to vote, even if you’re already registered.

Every state has its own deadlines for both registering and requesting an ‘absentee ballot’ – more about deadlines below – as well as its own rules on exactly how to make the request.

Registering to vote

When you register, the form asks whether you intend to return to the US at some point, or whether your return is uncertain.

Your answer doesn’t affect your right to vote for Congress, but it can change which other elections you’re allowed to vote in, depending on the state.

In Florida, for example, voters who intend to return receive a full ballot of federal, state and local races, while those whose return is uncertain are only guaranteed the federal ones – whereas in Nebraska, both groups receive the full ballot, according to Vote From Abroad.

It can also matter for tax. The FVAP says voting in federal elections alone can’t be used to decide whether you owe state taxes – but voting in state and local elections can, so if that’s a concern, take advice before you tick the box.

Requesting an ‘absentee ballot’

The form also asks how you want to receive your blank ballot: by email or online, by fax, or by post. Most voter organisations advise choosing email or online – it avoids the ballot being lost or delayed in the post – if that is an option in that state.

Next, send it to the local election office for your voting residence (all the websites mentioned above, where you can fill in the FPCA, provide this information).

Once your FPCA is accepted, your state sends you a ballot for every election you’re eligible for during the rest of that year – it arrives by the method you chose on the form (email or online, fax, or post).

When to expect your ballot paper

States are required to send ballots to overseas voters at least 45 days before a federal election, which this year was September 19th – so if you’ve already sent an FPCA in 2026 and asked for your ballot by email or fax, you should have it by now.

If you asked for your ballot to be sent by post, it should be on its way, if it hasn’t already arrived.

If yours was due by email and you can’t find it, first, check your spam folder, then contact your local election office – the one for the county or town where you last lived in the US. 

If you’re applying now, your ballot won’t arrive instantly – the election office has to process your FPCA first, which usually takes a few days.

If you’ve heard nothing after a week, check your spam folder and contact the office – and if time is running short, use the backup ballot described below.

Many states also have an online “Where’s my ballot?” tracker – you can find a list of them on the non-partisan, non-profit US Vote Foundation website. However, some state websites block visitors from outside the US. 

How to request an emergency backup ballot

If you’ve requested a ballot and it hasn’t turned up, or you’re worried it won’t get back in time, you can use the Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot (FWAB), an emergency backup ballot available to all overseas voters on the FVAP website.

You fill it in online, then print it and sign the voter information page that comes with it. It can be returned by any method your state accepts for a regular ballot – so if your state is post-only, the FWAB has to be posted too.

If your official ballot arrives after you’ve sent the FWAB, fill that in and return it as well. Only one will be counted: if both arrive before the deadline, the official ballot is used and the backup is discarded.

Remember, the FWAB is not a way round a missed deadline – you still need to have sent your FPCA by the state’s registration deadline.

What to do once you’ve received your ballot

Fill in the ballot as soon as it arrives, following your state’s instructions to the letter – ballots are most often rejected for a missing signature, a missing secrecy envelope or, in the few states that require one, a missing witness signature.

If you need help filling in the ballot, you can call the toll-free number for Americans in France listed on the FVAP’s website, send a message to the US Vote Foundation, or send an email via the Vote From Abroad site, run by Democrats Abroad.

Return your FPCA by your state’s deadline. Every state accepts ballots by post; only some accept ballots by email, fax or online upload – more details on the rules for different states can be found below.

READ MORE: La Poste clarifies rules on sending mail from France to US

US embassies and consulates also accept ballots for the ‘diplomatic pouch’ – a sealed container used for sending official correspondence – but Vote From Abroad warns that this can take several weeks,.

Different rules for different states

Elections in the US are run by the states, so registration deadlines, ballot request deadlines and the ways you can return a ballot all vary. 

Rules can also change between elections, so check your own state’s page on the FVAP voting assistance guide or on Vote From Abroad’s state rules before you send anything.

When’s the last date you can send ballots by post?

Once again, different rules apply in different states.

Some accept posted ballots that arrive after election day, provided they were postmarked in time and arrive within a set number of days. 

The rest require the ballot to be in the election office by the time polls close.