Absentee Voting: Military and Civilian Information

Members of the military and U.S. citizens who live abroad are eligible to register and vote absentee in federal elections under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) of 1986. The law was enacted to improve absentee registration and voting for this group of voters and consolidate existing laws. It is administered by the Secretary of Defense, who delegates that responsibility to the Director of the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) at the DOD. Here, you can find information about registration, ballot request and ballot return deadlines for state and Presidential primaries and the general election.

Electronic transmission of official election materials is governed by state laws. The good news is that Idaho is very progressive and attuned to the specific needs of overseas voters and the difficulties, especially for military members and their families, of voting and getting those votes sent in and counted. Idaho permits emailing the Federal Post Card Application (voter registration and absentee ballot request form) for absentee ballot requests. Idaho also permits faxing of blank ballots in emergency and non-emergency situations and it permits faxing of voted ballots in certain emergency situations.

Even with the great strides that have been made in accommodating overseas American voters and ensuring their right to exercise their vote, there are still challenges to absentee voting overseas. Internet voting was experimented with, but security concerns prevailed and the pilot program was canceled.

An analysis by the federal Election Assistance Commission estimated overseas and absentee military voting rates for the 2006 midterm elections at 5.5 percent.
A September 2007 survey by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission found that, of overseas military voters who requested absentee ballots for the 2006 election, only 47.6% had their ballots cast or counted.
Of military and overseas absentee ballots that reached election officials but were rejected for various reasons, nearly 70% were rejected because they were received after the deadline.

In light of these issues and particularly due to the importance of having our deployed military and their families vote, I have co-sponsored the Military Voting Protection Act (S. 3073). It would require the DOD to collect marked absentee ballots from overseas uniformed services voters and guarantee their delivery to the appropriate election officials before the polls close. The bill would also encourage the use of private providers of air transportation to deliver ballots, which would allow individual voters to track the progress of their voted ballot. Specifically, this legislation would:

Direct the DOD to establish procedures for collecting absentee ballots of absent overseas uniformed service voters and for delivering the ballots to the appropriate election officials;
Encourage the DOD to carry out delivery by contract with a provider of express mail services;
Direct the DOD to enter into an agreement with USPS for the delivery of the ballot to the election official for voters in jurisdictions using Post Office boxes for collection of absentee ballots;
Prevent a state from refusing to accept or process any absentee ballot delivered under the established procedures on the grounds that the ballot is received by the state other than through delivery by USPS or in person.
Direct DOD to implement a tracking mechanism that would enable any uniformed absentee voter to whether the ballot has been delivered and to the appropriate election official.
Express the Sense of Congress that the DOD should continue to utilize modern technology to enhance troops participation in elections and closely examine the option of electronic voting for overseas military voters.

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Absentee Voting: Military and Civilian Information

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