1

FVAP & Election Officials: Our Road Ahead

FVAP Director Matt Boehmer

Texas Association of Election Administrators Midwinter Conference

January 8, 2014

2

Who is FVAP?FVAP is a component within the Department of Defense (DoD).

What does FVAP do? FVAP works to ensure Service members, their families and overseas citizens are aware of their right to vote and have the tools and resources to do so - from anywhere in the world.

Why does FVAP exist?Congress decided the obstacles faced by Service members and overseas voters were unique and difficult to overcome without help navigating the process - and therefore an assistance agency was created to help both voters and local election officials.

3

What is UOCAVA?

UOCAVA, or the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act of 1986, as amended by the MOVE Act, requires U.S. States and territories to allow certain U.S. citizens to apply to register and vote absentee in elections for federal office.

Citizens covered under UOCAVA include: 1. Members of the Uniformed Services or Merchant Marine who are absent from their voting jurisdiction due to their service.

2. Eligible family members of the Uniformed Services or Merchant Marine who are absent from their voting jurisdiction with the member.

3. U.S. citizens residing outside the United States and its territories

4

What does UOCAVA require?States Federal Voting Assistance

Program or DoDMust transmit ALL UOCAVA ballots at least

45 days before Federal elections.(Jan 18 for March 4 Primary)

Consult State and local election officials in carrying out the law and ensure such

officials are aware of the requirements of the law.

Must make unvoted absentee ballots available to UOCAVA voters electronically.

Compile and distribute materials on State absentee registration and voting

procedures, and practical facts like election dates and offices on the ballot.

Must accept the Federal Post Card Application (FPCA) as registration and

ballot request form.

Requires the creation of a number of online tools for FVAP created forms (the FPCA and

FWAB).

Must accept the Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot (FWAB) in elections for Federal

office. Prohibits notarization requirements.

Report to Congress.

5

What was FVAP’s best news from 2012?

FVAP evaluated the effectiveness of our resources, including FVAP.gov, Installation Voter Assistance Offices (IVAOs) and Unit Voting Assistance Officers (UVAOs).

Of active duty members who interacted with one of these resources and received an absentee ballot, 86% voted and returned their absentee ballot.

Of active duty members who received an absentee ballot, but never interacted with one of the resources, only 80% voted and returned their ballots.

There is a positive relationship between FVAP and DoD resources and the likelihood of a UOCAVA voter returning their ballot. This was a great milestone for an “assistance” agency like FVAP.

6

Local Election Official Survey

FVAP Surveyed local election officials on absentee ballots processing:

4% of the total absentee ballots received from UOCAVA voters were rejected.

The primary reason reported for ballot rejection was the receipt of the ballot after the deadline. Of those ballot received late:

68% of ballots rejected were initially transmitted by mail. 20% of ballots rejected were initially transmitted by email. 3% of ballots rejected were initially sent by fax.

Sending ballots by mail still contributes to ballot failure rates. We can only encourage voters to return their ballots as soon as possible, but we can also develop ballot delivery tools.

7

How do we improve ballot transit time?

State and local Cooperation

FVAP awarded more than $25 million in 35 grants to States and localities between October 2011 and June 2012 in the first round of Electronic Absentee Systems for Elections (EASE) research grants which explored possible technological improvements for UOCAVA voters.

A second round of EASE grants were made in 2013. Rockwell County, Texas received $2,398,836 for a consortium of 50 counties: Anderson, Angelina, Bastrop, Brazoria, Burnet, Caldwell, Cameron, Cherokee, Coryell, Ellis, Fannin, Fort Bend, Galveston, Grayson, Gregg, Guadalupe, Harrison, Hale, Hardin, Hays, Henderson, Hidalgo, Hood, Hunt, Jefferson, Johnson, Kaufman, Kendall, Kerr, Lamar, Lampasas, Liberty, Navarro, Nueces, Orange, Parker, Potter, Randall, Rockwall, Rusk, San Patricio, Smith, Titus, Tom Green, Upshur, Val Verde, Victoria, Williamson, Wise and Wood.

Travis County received $19,950.

8

Electronic Absentee System for Elections (EASE) Grants

FVAP EASE I and EASE II Grant Awardees

FVAP EASE I Grant Awardees

DCDC

MDMD

NJNJ

RIRI

Grant Recipients:ArkansasArizonaBexar County, TXBoone County, MO (all MO)CaliforniaColoradoCity of Chicago, ILCity of DetroitDistrict of ColumbiaDallas County, TXEl Dorado County, CA (13 counties)Harris County, TXKing County, WA (11 counties)Kitsap County, WA (16 counties)IdahoLouisianaMaricopa County, AZMarylandNevadaMichiganMinnesotaMontanaNew JerseyNew MexicoNew YorkOhioOkaloosa County, FL (34 counties)Orange County, FLOregonRhode IslandRockwall County, TX (50 counties)Travis County, TXSan Bernardino County, CASanta Cruz County, CASouth CarolinaSouth Dakota +NebraskaUtahVirginiaWest VirginiaWisconsin

FVAP EASE II Grant Awardees

9

What are we learning?

Military and overseas voters are willing to try electronic tools.

Bexar County sent 58% of all UOCAVA blank absentee ballots to voters via its grant-funded tool.

Dallas County used their electronic absentee ballot delivery system to send 2,615 ballots via email to UOCAVA, which was more than two thirds of the UOCAVA ballots sent.

Harris County sent 6,420 blank absentee ballots via email to registered Uniformed Service members and overseas voters.

FVAP will continue to receive data to gauge the effectiveness of grant-funded electronic tools for the next five years, covering the 2014 and 2016 General Elections.

10

What will the Rockwell consortium do?

Acquire and implement a web-based electronic ballot delivery system for Uniformed Service and overseas citizens for the use of approximately 15,500 known UOCAVA voters.

Voters will have online access to voter registration tools, absentee ballot notifications, on-demand, accessible ballot delivery and ballot tracking.

11

What will Travis County do?

Enhance their ballot-by-mail software by replacing many manual procedures by automatically and electronically delivering a link to a PDF version of the voter’s ballot, which the voter can print, manually mark and then return by mail. This enhancement seeks improve voting for more than 2000 UOCAVA voters.

12

What can FVAP do for you?New Website

FVAP’s new website is intuitive and easy to navigate.

From our homepage you can click directly to the Election Official section.

Quick links will also allow you to download and print forms and check your contact information.

13

What can FVAP do for you?

Trainings

FVAP is updating our local election official training.

Should be available for use this month.

Excellent resource for new members of your staff.

14

What can FVAP do for you?

Reference Materials

Quick Reference Guides

FPCA/FWAB Flowcharts

PDF Postcard Notification

Frequently Asked Questions

New Fact Sheets

15

What can FVAP do for you? Postage-Paid Indicia

James Larry Jones

USS FVAP

FPO AE 54321

Orange Registrar of Voters1300 S. Grande Ave Bldg. CSanta Ana, CA, 92705-4434

16

What can FVAP do for you?

Voter Look-Up

FVAP has begun using a new system within the DoD to look-up military voter information.

FVAP will provide more guidance on this as we develop business processes for sending and returning requests.

We believe we will have more success with this system than our previous one.

17

Other AssistanceFVAP continues to enhance and improve

current resources:

Revised FPCA and FWABDirect communication with votersTelephone and email assistance

Change of Address update between MPSA and USPS

18

Voters and election officials noted that FPCA and FWAB were difficult to use.

FVAP used their suggestions and conducted usability sessions to revise the forms.

New versions available at FVAP.gov.

18

Revised FPCA and FWAB

19

Going Directly to Voters

Facebook.com/DoDFVAP

Twitter @FVAP

20

Telephone and Email AssistanceFVAP continues to develop plans for handling calls, emails and faxes into our office during the 2014 Election Cycle.

In 2012, FVAP received 60,000 requests for assistance via chats, emails and faxes.

M – F 0900 – 1700 ET

1-800- 438-VOTE(8683)24-hour email and voicemail option

vote@fvap.gov

21

Military Postal Automated Redirection System (MilPARS)

OR

USPS Responsibility DoD Responsibility

JFK Airport, NYUSPS Facility

Any Town, USA

Local Post Office USPS Processing & Distribution Centers

Kabul AirportMilitary MCA

Bahrain AirportMilitary MCA

JMMT Kabul

Unit

Mail Clerks

Commercial Air

Contracted or Military Air &

GroundRedirect PointEWR Airport, NJ

USPS Facility

Commercial Air

Change of Address notification will happen at the local level.

22

How can you help FVAP?

Connecting with Voters

What about transmitting a blank ballot by email makes it more likely a voter will return it? Do you follow-up the ballot with email reminders? What are your thoughts?

Voters often complain that after they send an FPCA there is no confirmation of receipt by an election office, what can we do to change this? Is it practical to expect this? What are your thoughts?

What are other services FVAP could offer that would be helpful to you?

23

How can you help FVAP?

Rememberall UOCAVA ballots must be sent out January 18, 2014 for the March 4, 2014 Primary.

24

Questions or Comments? Contact FVAP!

Emailstacey.vanzuiden@fvap.gov matt.boehmer@fvap.gov

Commercial 571-372-0752

Toll-Free 800-438-VOTE (8683)

Facebook Facebook.com/DoDFVAP

Twitter Twitter.com/FVAP

Thank You!