Click here to view sample information that is collected
We use this information to help us make our site more useful to visitors - to learn about the number of visitors to our site and the types of technology our visitors use. We do not track or record information about individuals.
Privacy Act Statement - If you choose to provide us with personal information - like filling out a Contact Us form with e-mail and/or postal addresses - we only use that information to respond to your message or request. We will only share the information you give us with another government agency if your inquiry relates to that agency, or as otherwise required by law. We never create individual profiles or give it to any private organizations. FVAP.gov never collects information for commercial marketing. While you must provide an e-mail address or postal address for a response other than those generated automatically in response to questions or comments that you may submit, we recommend that you NOT include any other personal information, especially Social Security numbers. The Social Security Administration offers additional guidance on sharing your Social Security number.
We maintain a variety of physical, electronic and procedural safeguards to protect your personal information. For site security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, this government computer system employs software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage.
Use of Measurement and Customization Technology (i.e., “cookies”) - This website uses measurement and customization technology known as a "cookies." Cookies are used to remember a user's online interactions with a website or online application in order to conduct measurement and analysis of usage or to customize the user's experience. These cookies are enabled by default once the user enters the FVAP.gov website, as the information gathered by the statistics aggregator depends on them. Opt-out instructions for those wishing to disable cookies can be found below.
There are two kinds of cookies used on this website. A persistent or multi-session cookie (Tier 2) is saved to a file on a user's hard drive and is called up the next time that user visits a website. Session-based cookies are temporary in nature and assist users with the use of FVAP’s automated tools and are deleted once the visitor closes the browser.
Tier 2 cookies are used to distinguish between summary statistics for users who have been to the site before and those that are visiting the site for the first time. The Federal Voting Assistance Program does not gather, request, record, require, collect or track any Internet users' personally identifiable information (PII) through these processes. FVAP.gov uses Tier 2 cookies to remember whether a website visitor prefers to view the default homepage or an alternative page geared towards more specific content.
Session-based cookies are used to tie together a user with his/her data as the user steps through the automated tools for completion of the Federal Post Card Application and Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot. Upon closing the browser, all session-based cookies are deleted.
The Federal Voting Assistance Program does not gather, request, record, require, collect or track any Internet users' PII through either of these processes.
FVAP.gov collects aggregate statistics of website visitor characteristics, traffic, and activity. This information is used to assess what content is of most and least interest, determine technical design specifications, and identify system performance or problem areas. The software records a variety of data, including IP addresses (the locations of computers or networks on the Internet), unique visits, page views, hits, referring websites, and which hyperlinks have been clicked. Tier 2 cookies are used to distinguish between summary statistics for users who have been to the site before and those that are visiting the site for the first time.
The Federal Voting Assistance Program does not use the information associated with cookies to track individual user activity on the Internet outside Defense Department websites, and without the user's explicit consent, nor does FVAP share the data obtained through such technologies with other departments or agencies. The Federal Voting Assistance Program does not keep a database of information obtained from the use of cookies.
Opting Out - Cookies are enabled by default once the user enters the FVAP.gov website, as the information gathered by the statistics aggregator depends on them. However, users can choose not to accept the use of these cookies by changing the settings on their local computer's web browser. Please Note: By changing your settings and opting out of the use of cookies, some functions of the FVAP.gov website may be disabled to include use of the FPCA and FWAB automated tools. This is due to functionality of the tools requiring the use of session-based cookies to tie individual users to data on the server as information is submitted. If these session-based cookies are blocked, the user will be unable to advance past the first page of the automated tool.
The USA.gov website, http://www.usa.gov/optout_instructions.shtml, provides general instructions on how to opt out of cookies and other commonly used web measurement and customization technologies. Opting out of cookies still permits users to access comparable information and services; however, it may take longer to navigate or interact with the website if a user is required to fill out certain information repeatedly.
The Federal Voting Assistance Program provides information presented on this website as a public service of the U.S. Government. Be advised that not all materials appearing here are in the public domain; some are copyrighted. You may encounter documents or other information resources that may be protected by United States and foreign copyright laws. The Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Based on your analysis, you may need to seek permission from the copyright owner if your intended use of copyrighted information is beyond that allowed by law or the Government's license.
Only government works prepared by officers and employees of the U.S. Government as part of their official duties are not protected by copyright in the U.S. (17 USC � 105). Be advised that government works may contain a privately created work (e.g. quote, photograph, chart, drawing, etc.) used with permission; incorporation in a U.S. Government work does not place the private work in the public domain.
Contractors and grantees are not considered Government employees; generally they hold copyright to works they produce for the Government. The Government is granted a nonexclusive, irrevocable, paid-up royalty-free worldwide license to use, modify, reproduce, release, perform, display or disclose these works by or on behalf of the Government.
If you have any questions or comments about the information presented here, please forward them to us using the Contact Us page.
The Federal Voting Assistance Program website does not use persistent cookies (persistent tokens that pass information back and forth from your machine to the server and remain after you close your browser). This website may use session cookies (tokens that remain active only until you close your browser) in order to make the site easier to use. The Department of Defense and the Federal Voting Assistance Program DO NOT keep a database of information obtained from these cookies. You can choose not to accept these cookies and still use the site, but it may take longer for the pages to load. Refer to the help information in your browser software for instructions on how to disable cookies.
A public (or shared) computer is any computer used by someone other than you. For example computers at Internet cafes, libraries, hotels, airports, or shared work computers.
The computer may save some of your personal data in temporary files. We recommend that you delete all personal data from the public computer before logging off the system. Please check the browser's help file to determine how to delete any private data that has been stored during your session.
The Federal Voting Assistance Program is committed to providing our employees, customers and visitors with the most current and timely information available. Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act as amended, 29 U.S.C. Section 794d, requires that when federal agencies develop, procure, maintain or use electronic and information technology (IT), they must ensure that federal employees and members of the public with disabilities have access to and use of information and data comparable to that available to non-disabled employees and members of the public, unless meeting compliance standards would pose an undue burden.
The web pages posted to the Federal Voting Assistance Program website have been tested in accordance with the provisions of the aforementioned Act. If you have difficulty accessing any portion of this site, please contact us via email at vote@fvap.gov, subject: Accessibility. Our Web Team welcomes comments on how to improve the site's accessibility for users with disabilities.
The Federal Voting Assistance Program website presents many documents in .PDF format. Free tools from the Adobe Corporation are available to assist visually impaired users at the Adobe website. This link is made to assist in accessibility of .PDF files on this site. No endorsement of Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Systems, Inc., or warranty is implied or expressed.
These free viewer programs are available for download and installation. This website may require one or more of these plug-ins for a variety of purposes to view documents within the website.
Note: Users on military networks should consult your local network administrator to have these programs installed on your computers.
Portable Document Format (.pdf) - this format creates a document that looks exactly like the original paper document.
Word (.doc) - this is a common format for word processing documents.
Powerpoint (.ppt) - this is a common format for presentation documents.
Excel (.xls) - this is a common format for spreadsheet documents.
The Federal Voting Assistance Program encourages links to our web pages. No permission is required to link to this site.
This site provides external links as a convenience to our users and all links provided are consistent with the mission of the Federal Voting Assistance Program. The appearance of external hyperlinks on the Federal Voting Assistance Program website does not constitute endorsement by the Federal Voting Assistance Program or the Department of Defense of the linked websites, or the information, products or services contained therein. The Federal Voting Assistance Program does not exercise any editorial control over the information you may find at these locations.
Please let us know about existing external links which you believe are inappropriate by contacting us.
The Federal Voting Assistance Program website can add a link to any government website that is publicly available unless directed not to by the agency that owns the site. Acceptable federal government-owned or government-sponsored website domains include .gov, .mil, .fed, and .us. The Federal Voting Assistance Program website may also link to: quasi-government agencies and websites created by public sector/private sector partnerships; state and local government sites (e.g., www.virginia.gov); and some government-sponsored websites that end in .com, .org, or .net.
In rare instances, the Federal Voting Assistance Program website will link to websites that are not government-owned or government-sponsored if these websites provide government information and/or services in a way that is not available on an official government website. The Federal Voting Assistance Program website provides these non-government websites as a public service only. The Federal Voting Assistance Program neither endorses nor guarantees in any way the external organizations, services, advice, or products included in these website links. Furthermore, the Federal Voting Assistance Program neither controls nor guarantees the accuracy, relevance, timeliness or completeness of the information contained in non-government website links.
The Federal Voting Assistance Program website will not link to any website that exhibits hate, bias, or discrimination. Furthermore, the Federal Voting Assistance Program website reserves the right to deny or remove any link that contains misleading information or unsubstantiated claims, or is determined to be in conflict with Federal Voting Assistance Program’s mission or policies.
The FOIA generally provides that any person has a right, enforceable in court, of access to federal agency records, except to the extent that such records (or portions thereof) are protected from disclosure by one of nine exemptions.
The Privacy Act (PA) regulates the federal government's collection, maintenance, use and dissemination of personal information about U.S. citizens and aliens lawfully admitted for permanent residence. Among the rights afforded under the Privacy Act is an individual's right to obtain copies of records maintained on him/her if the information contained in agency files, retrievable by the individual's name or other identifier, is not exempt from release under the provisions of the law.
All requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) should be submitted to the Office of Freedom of Information. Directions on how to submit a FOIA request are available online, along with additional information on the Office of Freedom of Information’s FOIA program, at http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/dfoipo/.
The FOIA known by its legal cite as 5 U.S.C. 552, along with the Department of Defense (DoD) Regulation 5400.7-R, "Department of Defense Freedom of Information Act Program," can be found at Part 286 of Chapter 32 of the Code of Federal Regulations, which is available in most libraries. It can also be purchased from the National Technical Information Service (NTIS), 5285 Port Royal Road, Springfield, VA 22161.
Last updated: 01.15.2013