Voting in the U.S. is controlled and conducted by state governments who have various rules, whether it's voting early for early, by absentee or at local polls if a local voter is temporarily gone on election day. Military voting is different because extended or overseas absences can prevent service members from using normal state voting rules. A special law, called the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, or UOCAVA, requires that states and territories allow certain groups to register and vote absentee in federal elections.

While a few deploying or deployed members may be able to vote at their local polls prior to departure or will return in time to vote at their local polls, most deployed members must use the absentee voting process if they want to vote. Local briefings during deployment processing should encourage deploying members to take a copy of two voting forms with them: the SF-76 Federal Post Card Application and the SF-186 Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot. Unit voting assistance officers can help. The SF-76 is L available at the Federal Voting Assistance Program.

All members of the U.S. uniformed services on active duty including Merchant Marines, their family members and U.S. citizens residing outside the U.S.

Military and family members stationed/working in their voting residence city and state may vote locally at the polls or use their state's absentee process. Each state has specific residency and voter registration requirements. State rules and most required forms can be found at the FVAP website by searching your "state name" and entering the words "voting" or "election." Even if it is not one's home state, military members may vote in the state or territory where they are stationed if they change their legal residence to that state or territory. Even if service members live on a military installation, just registering to vote at their new location will often result in a change in legal residence. Because there are legal and tax obligations that may be incurred, people should visit their base legal office for advice on local and state tax policies. Voters using UOCAVA protections continue to remain voting and tax residents of their home state without regard to the places their duty has taken them.

For voting purposes, the "legal voting residence" can be the state or territory where the service member last resided prior to entering military service or the state or territory that a service member has since claimed as the legal residence. Military and family members can choose to change their legal residence every time they change permanent duty stations. Military members and their families can have different legal voting residences. A legal officer should be consulted before legal residence is changed because there are often other factors to consider.

Complete and mail the Federal Post Card Application Form (SF-76). Contact your installation voting assistance officer through your base operator for more information.

The SF-76 can be obtained from a unit voting office. It is also available online at the Federal Voting Assistance Program website.

Many states have specific rules. You can also look up those requirements in the Voting Assistance Guide at http://www.fvap.gov/vao/guide.html. Depending on the rules of the state, voters can mail or use electronic means for registering and requesting ballots. Although there is a deadline, some states allow late registration.

The law entitles eligible family members of military members to vote absentee. Family members are considered to be in the same absentee voter category as military members and generally should follow the same procedures. Family members of military members residing overseas, who are U.S. citizens and who have never resided in the U.S. usually claim a parent's legal status as their own if that parent is a U.S.citizen.