# Absentee ballots: How long does it take mail to reach overseas destinations?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absentee-ballots-how-long-does-it-take-mail-to-reach-overseas-destinations/130882>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 4, 2002, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absentee-ballots-how-long-does-it-take-mail-to-reach-overseas-destinations/130882 "2002-10-04T20:03:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2002, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absentee-ballots-how-long-does-it-take-mail-to-reach-overseas-destinations/130882/1 "2002-10-04T20:03:06Z")

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I’ve never sent snail mail outside of the US, otherwise I might have a clue.

What with all of this alleged voter disenfranchisement business being bandied about, I wonder how long it really takes to get mail to US citizens abroad. For purposes of working this into the election fiasco current events, I guess I’m thinking mainly about absentee ballots- do they have some kind of special high speed priority? Doesn’t mail destined to military personnel _zoom_ over on USAF jets, reaching its destination in a day or two?

Mail travelling inside the US seems to be hit-or-miss sometimes, so I have to believe that we need to be extra-generous when allowing overseas US citizens time to receive their ballots. For example, if it takes a week for a ballot to get to (say) Afghanistan, we should allow at least two weeks.

Are there any laws that say by what date absentee ballots must be mailed?

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**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2002, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absentee-ballots-how-long-does-it-take-mail-to-reach-overseas-destinations/130882/2 "2002-10-04T20:36:45Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Attrayant \*  
> \*\*Are there any laws that say by what date absentee ballots must be mailed? \*\*

I am relatively sure that it depends on the state in which you are voting.

Last time I checked, in my state ([WA](http://www.secstate.wa.gov/elections/register_absentee.aspx)), they needed only to be postmarked by election day. (Which is, IIRC, one reason that it took so long to count the ballots in 2000 - they needed to wait for them all to come in)