Congress moves to ease overseas voting - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Congress moves to ease overseas voting

Congress has approved some new absentee voter rules that by the 2010 general elections should make it easier for deployed service members to receive and return ballots in time to have them counted.

The Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act, or MOVE Act, folded into the larger 2010 defense authorization bill, makes five changes to remove barriers to voting. Congress gave final approval to the bill on Thursday, but the measure has not yet been sent to the White House. The key changes:

Starting with the November 2010 elections:

• States are required to have at least one method of electronic delivery of voter registration and ballot applications. This could be by fax or e-mail.

• Absentee ballots that are blank, without candidate names, must be available electronically and by mail. Blank ballots are helpful in instances when late runoffs or other election issues delay printing of final ballots with candidates’ names.

• Absent service members and overseas voters who request a ballot must have 45 days from when it is sent to when it must be returned, so they have enough time to vote for any federal office.

• State rules on notarization of absentee ballots, or restrictions on the type of paper or envelope that must be used, could not be used by a state as reason to refuse to accept and process a ballot.

Starting Jan. 1, 2011:

• The federal write-in ballot, already used by states for general elections, will be accepted for special, primary and runoff elections for federal offices, and a list of all candidates must be available to voters, by e-mail, fax or at an election Web site.

The MOVE Act is a result of bipartisan efforts to change election laws amid discouraging reports after the 2008 elections.

“This bill will remove the barriers that too often conspire to disenfranchise our military men and women,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., the Senate Rules Committee chairman who helped push the legislation through Congress. “It is the least we can do for our troops to make sure their votes get counted when they are serving overseas.”

A report earlier this year by the Congressional Research Service, based on data drawn from the seven states with the largest numbers of military voters, found that more than 28 percent of ballots sent to deployed service members went uncounted because of various problems — lost mail, missed deadlines, and some service members seeming to give up on trying to vote when their ballots arrived just days before the election.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who has been trying for years to get more military votes counted, said he is glad Congress finally has addressed what he called a “national disgrace.”

“It is incomprehensible and unacceptable that many still face substantial roadblocks to participating in our national elections,” Cornyn said. “The voting problems are only getting worse.”

The bill, he said, addresses some of the biggest problems. “Under current election laws, many troops must jump through several bureaucratic hoops: Mail a request for an absentee ballot, wait for elections officials to mail the blank ballot, then mail the completed ballot back in time to be counted. This legislation requires elections officials to create electronic blank ballots — and post them online,” he said.