But a county elections spokeswoman said the problem is that any changes made to the rolls using the secretary of state?s address-change application aren?t automatically transferred to the county rolls.

?It does not update our permanent database,? said Vickey Bynum, early voting mail supervisor for the department. ?We manually have to go in and make changes to the permanent file.?

And county Election Administrator Bruce Sherbet said the secretary of state?s new database and the change-of-address forms were added only in 2006. He said similar technology to update county registration information is still several years away.

Mr. Sherbet said Agent Davis? absentee ballot was remailed to his new base address Oct. 21. He said there is a five-day window after Election Day when ballots from abroad can still be received and counted toward a final vote tally.

As of Thursday, Agent Davis still had not received his ballot.

Ms. Bynum said that if he believes his absentee ballot will not reach the elections department in time, he can download and mail a federal write-in ballot ? but he would be able to vote only for president and U.S. senator.

Faced with that possibility, Agent Davis said he?d opt for the write-in ballot.

?It?s better than not being able to vote for anything,? he said, but ?It?s kind of like consolation-prize voting.?