All posts tagged uocava

Video from Overseas Vote Foundation’s Second Annual UOCAVA Summit

by waybeyondthebeltway on April 13, 2008 in Americans Abroad, Voting with No comments

Overseas Vote Foundation has posted video from the Second Annual UOCAVA Summit. Check it out here.

In addition, American Citizens Abroad’s excellent presentation on proposed amendments to the Uniformed And Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) is attached. Among other things, ACA highlights key obstacles to voting from abroad, obstacles most of us have unfortunately encountered:

  • Variations in information and other requirements among States for absentee registration and voting: some examples:
    - How long did you resided in state before leaving?
    - Are you a native born or naturalized citizen?
    - What is your branch of military service, grade or rank?
    - For civilians, what is the  name and address of your employer?
  • Variations in deadlines for registering and voting    “The deadline for registering as a UOCAVA voter ranges from 30 days prior to an election in 21 states to absolutely no registration requirements in 15 states.”
    Institute of Public and International Affairs
    University of Utah, 2007
  • Physical challenge to get a ballot to the UOCAVA voter in time so that the completed ballot can be returned in time to be counted

Overseas absentee ballots

by waybeyondthebeltway on October 6, 2007 in Americans Abroad, Politics, Representation, Voting, Washington with No comments

On September 24, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) released its 2006 Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) Report, a collection of data from all 50 states about UOCAVA voting. The report is available at www.eac.gov. I was distressed, but not surprised to read that voter turnout among Uniformed and Overseas Citizens remains low.

What’s worse is the fact that those of us who do jump through the hoops necessary to exercise this most essential right, the very cornerstone of democracy, may not have our votes counted at all. The International Herald Tribune‘s Brian Knowlton writes that only 1/3 of the nearly one million absentee ballots requested for the 2006 midterm election were cast or counted. Shockingly, 70% of ballots are returned as undeliverable.

The EAC’s report cites serious deficiencies in the collection an reporting of election data by both state and local offices, indeed some states such as Alabama and Tennessee provided almost no data. Incredibly, the former Alabama official in charge of collecting this data pursuant to the 2002 Help America Vote Act (“HAVA”) simply didn’t do the job.

With this sort of intransigence — one hopes it is just a few states — we are fortunate to have the Overseas Vote Foundation which makes registering to vote and requesting an absentee ballot a simple 5-10 minute procedure during which you are asked questions that lead you through the particular requirements for registering in your state.

Stars and Stripes also reported on the story.