Transcript Slide 1

FVAP & Election Officials:
Our Road Ahead
FVAP Director
Matt Boehmer
Texas Association of Election Administrators
Midwinter Conference
January 8, 2014
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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.
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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
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What does UOCAVA require?
States
Federal Voting Assistance
Program or DoD
Must 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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Grant Recipients:
Electronic Absentee System for Elections (EASE) Grants
NJ
RI
MD
DC
FVAP EASE I Grant Awardees
FVAP EASE II Grant Awardees
FVAP EASE I and EASE II Grant Awardees
Arkansas
Arizona
Bexar County, TX
Boone County, MO (all MO)
California
Colorado
City of Chicago, IL
City of Detroit
District of Columbia
Dallas County, TX
El Dorado County, CA (13 counties)
Harris County, TX
King County, WA (11 counties)
Kitsap County, WA (16 counties)
Idaho
Louisiana
Maricopa County, AZ
Maryland
Nevada
Michigan
Minnesota
Montana
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
Ohio
Okaloosa County, FL (34 counties)
Orange County, FL
Oregon
Rhode Island
Rockwall County, TX (50 counties)
Travis County, TX
San Bernardino County, CA
Santa Cruz County, CA
South Carolina
South Dakota +Nebraska
Utah
Virginia
West Virginia
Wisconsin
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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 grantfunded electronic tools for the next five years, covering the 2014 and 2016
General Elections.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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What can FVAP do for you?
Reference Materials
 Quick Reference Guides
 FPCA/FWAB Flowcharts
 PDF Postcard Notification
 Frequently Asked Questions
 New Fact Sheets
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What can FVAP do for you?
Postage-Paid Indicia
Orange Registrar of Voters
1300 S. Grande Ave Bldg. C
Santa Ana, CA, 92705-4434
James Larry Jones
USS FVAP
FPO AE 54321
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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.
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Other Assistance
FVAP continues to enhance and improve
current resources:
Revised FPCA and FWAB
Direct communication with voters
Telephone and email assistance
Change of Address update between MPSA
and USPS
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Revised FPCA and FWAB
 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.
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Going Directly to Voters
Twitter @FVAP
Facebook.com/DoDFVAP
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Telephone and Email Assistance
FVAP 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- 438VOTE(8683)
24-hour email and
voicemail option
[email protected]
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Military Postal Automated Redirection System (MilPARS)
USPS Responsibility
Any Town, USA
Change of
Address
notification
will happen
at the local
level.
Local Post Office
DoD Responsibility
Commercial
Air
Commercial Air
Bahrain Airport
Military MCA
USPS Processing &
Distribution Centers
OR
Kabul Airport
Military MCA
Unit
Mail
Clerks
JFK Airport, NY
USPS Facility
EWR Airport, NJ
USPS Facility
Redirect Point
Contracted or
Military Air &
Ground
JMMT Kabul
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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?
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How can you help FVAP?
Remember
all UOCAVA ballots must be
sent out January 18, 2014 for
the March 4, 2014 Primary.
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Thank You!
Questions or Comments? Contact FVAP!
Email
[email protected]
[email protected]
Commercial
571-372-0752
Toll-Free
800-438-VOTE (8683)
Facebook
Facebook.com/DoDFVAP
Twitter
Twitter.com/FVAP
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