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WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), Chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) and Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) announced Thursday that the full Senate is nearing final passage of bipartisan legislation to make it easier for U.S. troops to cast ballots from overseas. The measure—co-sponsored by Senate Rules Committee Ranking Member Robert Bennett (R-UT), Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) and 54 other senators—is attached to the Department of Defense authorization bill, which is likely to come up for a final vote in the Senate later today.
“It is the least we can do for our troops to make sure their votes get counted when they are serving overseas,” said Schumer. “This bill will remove the barriers that too often conspire to disenfranchise our military men and women. Thanks to this quick passage by the Senate, it will take effect in time for next year’s federal elections.”
“It’s time we address the issues that have kept military and overseas absentee ballots from being counted,” said Chambliss. “Our military men and women serving overseas at very least deserve to participate in the electoral process.”
“Every day, our men and women in uniform put themselves in harm’s way for our freedoms. Those freedoms aren’t free. They must be renewed with every election. And we must ensure that our men and women in uniform can renew those freedoms with their votes. I firmly believe our bipartisan Military and Overseas Voting Empowerment Act will make a huge impact in helping our military and overseas voters to have their votes counted, no matter where they find themselves on Election Day,” said Nelson.
“And from my standpoint, personally, it makes a great deal of personal sense to me to do it this way, because in my first primary I won by 42 votes in a statewide race,” Nelson said at a press conference with Schumer and Chambliss. “So I know that every vote counts and every vote needs to be counted. With this bill we can assure our men and women overseas that their votes not only count, but will be counted.”
The measure expected to pass today is based on the Military and Overseas Voters Empowerment Act (“MOVE Act”). That bill was introduced after a Rules Committee survey last May showed that as many as one in four ballots cast by military voters went uncounted in last year’s presidential election.
The bill would fix several of the flaws responsible for such widespread disenfranchisement. Among other provisions, it requires that all states provide military voters with ballots no later than 45 days prior to the election, so that they have adequate time to complete and return them. The bill would requires states to provide ballots electronically. Additionally, it beefs up the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) at the Department of Defense, which is the main source of election-related information and assistance for many members of the military.
The legislation would also bar states from rejecting military ballots for lack of a “Notary” signature—a feat difficult to achieve in the bases of Iraq and Afghanistan.
In May, the Senate Rules Committee released a study showing that as many as 25% of troops stationed overseas went uncounted in 2008. Schumer said the estimate was based on figures provided to the committee by election officials in seven of the states with the highest number of deployed troops. In 2008, military personnel and some civilians hailing from these states requested 441,000 ballots in order to vote from overseas locations, as allowed by the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA). Of those, 98,633 were never received back by the election officials in the U.S. and so were declared “lost” ballots. Another 13,504 were received but rejected for various reasons including a missing signature or failure to notarize, as is required in some states. When combined, these two categories amount to 112,137 voters in those seven states—or 25.42% of the 441,000 who requested ballots—being disenfranchised, the study found.
The impediments include: difficulties in registering to vote from overseas; not receiving ballots early enough; and obstacles to returning the ballots in time to be counted. The bill addresses these and other problems by:
• Guaranteeing that military and overseas ballots will be counted if sent by Election Day;
• Ensuring that states send out ballots a minimum of 45 days in advance of the election so military and overseas voters will receive them in time
• Improving awareness and use of a failsafe ballot that voters can use if their ballots are lost in the mail;
• Prohibiting states from rejecting a marked absentee ballot solely on the basis of a missing notary signature, paper size, and other restrictions
• Giving more resources to the Department of Defense Voting Assistance Offices who provide voting information and support to service men and women and their families;
• Establishing standards for record-keeping on military and overseas voting statistics; and
• Encouraging greater enforcement of the military and overseas voting statutes
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