Lt. Col. Joe Richards, the spokesman, said the ballot was being made available on the Web site for the first time at the request of both the Republican and Democratic parties. He said it was expected to be posted by Thursday.

The ballot can be downloaded onto the voter's computer, then must be printed, filled out and mailed to the voter's local election office. To qualify for the write-in ballot, the voter must have applied for a regular absentee ballot early enough that the request was received by the local election official at least 30 days before the election.

Local election offices in some states missed the deadline of Sept. 19 for sending out absentee ballots to ensure their timely return from overseas locales where mail service sometimes is slow.

The Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot can be found at http://www.fvap.gov/services/fwab.html

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