Absentee Voting Week is October 12-18, 2008. The Federal Voting Assistance Program (and Consular Affairs) encourages all American citizen voters to return their voted ballots immediately, or to use the back-up Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot (FWAB).

Special Service for American Citizens in Ukraine: Free DHL service for returning voting materials: To help you vote via absentee ballot and meet the deadline of your state, the American Chamber of Commerce in cooperation with DHL are again offering their support to U.S. Citizen Voters by providing two shipments for voting materials on October 11 and 25th:

Ballot requests and voted absentee ballots delivered to the American Citizens Services (ACS) Unit at the Embassy's Consular section before 5:00 PM on October 10th and 5:00 PM on October 24th will be shipped to the U.S. by DHL free of charge the following day. Please make sure the envelopes containing your ballot have appropriate postage since they will be put into the U.S. postal system after reaching the United States. If you do not have a return envelope from your Local Election Official or you are sending in the Online Version of the Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot (OFWAB) http://www.fvap.gov/resources/media/fwab.pdf, you can print a postage-paid envelope at http://www.fvap.gov/resources/media/returnenvelope.pdf.

Questions should be directed to ACS. Please do not contact DHL or the American Chamber of Commerce regarding this service.

The FWAB can only be used by voters who already registered to vote and requested an absentee ballot.
Please start using the FWAB in early October after your state’s primary when you vote for the general election. If you subsequently receive your state ballots, you should vote those ballots as well and send them in. Your local election officials will replace the FWAB with the voted state ballot if it is received on time.

Check the online Voting Assistance Guide for the most current requirement on notarization of voted ballot. Only a few states require notarization, but many states have witness requirements. The US Embassy will provide voting-related notarizations free of charge on all working days.

Voters in Ukraine have a number of options for mailing Federal Postcard Applications, voted state ballots, and Federal Write-in Absentee Ballots to their local election officials in the United States. Mailing addresses for local election officials and state mailing deadlines can be found in the Voting Assistance Guide, available on-line at www.fvap.gov.

1. First Class Mail: You may mail your Federal Postcard Application or voted ballot to the United States through the (country) mail system, with appropriate international postage.

2. Diplomatic Pouch: Diplomatic pouch to the East Coast takes approximately 14 days. Processing of mail at the diplomatic pouch facility in the Washington, D.C. area and onward delivery by the U.S. Postal Service to local election officials across the U.S. can take another one to four days. The Consular Section will place a date stamp and seal on your ballot as evidence of the date and location from which the ballot was mailed. However, this is not a postmark. Voters should make every effort to submit their ballots to the U.S. Embassy no later than October 15 for diplomatic pouch mail.

3. Express Courier: Last-minute voters can use express courier services such as FedEx, UPS and DHL to send their voted ballots to all states and territories except Alabama. Express courier companies cannot deliver to post office boxes, so you will need to know the street address of your local voting official in the United States. Mail sent by express courier companies is not postmarked. Contact information for some local express courier companies follows:

Fed Ex: www.fedex.com 8044-495-2020
UPS: www.ups.com 8044-280-0000
DHL: www.dhl.com 8044-490-2600


American Citizens Services Unit
Consular Section
U.S. Embassy Kyiv
6 Pymonenko St.
Kyiv 01901
Tel.: (+38 044) 490-4445, 490-4422
Fax: (+38 044) 490-4040
e-mail: kyivacs@state.gov
Web: http://kyiv.usembassy.gov