Virginia State Board of Elections : Back ground information emergency overseas military voting

Background information on the Emergency Overseas Military Voting process and the Pilot Program for other Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) voters. 

There has been concern for decades about ensuring the men and women in our uniformed services, particularly those who are serving far from home, have the same election opportunities as all other Americans.  Moreover, many other voters covered under the federal Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) also find absentee voting difficult. (In addition to the military, UOCAVA voters include those who are military dependents, and citizens who are overseas on Election Day.) 

In 1994, because of problems experienced by military voters called up during Operation Desert Storm, the Virginia General Assembly added Section §24.2-713 to the Code of Virginia to allow alternative absentee voting procedures for qualified voters in certain emergency circumstances.  Until this fall 2002, this emergency authority had never been used, as it was difficult to trigger the emergency provisions.  After September 11, 2001, as the number of overseas active duty were increased, particularly in combat zones, and the number of reserves and national guard called up on active duty was significantly increased, there was significant concern expressed that the elections community should try to minimize the problems that might prevent a qualified voter serving his or her country from being able to vote.  The Virginia General Assembly responded to these concerns by giving the Secretary of the State Board of Elections (SBE) greater authority to declare an emergency under this section.  This change was recommended by the Joint Subcommittee Studying Virginia's Election Process and Voting Technologies, and introduced by Delegate James K. O'Brien, Jr. (R-Fairfax County) and Senator William Bolling (R-Hanover County).   Governor Warner signed these bills (HB 640 and SB 113) into law earlier this year. 

Additionally, in response to the problems brought to light as a result of the problems in Florida during the 2000 Presidential elections, the State Board of Elections began several projects to improve the process and procedures for military and other absentee voters.  First, in fall 2001 SBE created an online program to allow all absentee voters to check through the Internet on the status of their absentee ballot to confirm receipt by the local elections office.  Additionally, SBE tried a limited, but successful pilot to allow e-mail transmission of ballots to military voters.  Finally, SBE set up a task force on Military and Other Absentee Voters in 2001 to look at ways to improve election opportunities for both military and other voters who need to vote absentee.  Participation by local General Registrars, Electoral Board members, the political parties, and voter advocacy groups, both military and non-military, has been extensive and contributed substantially to the improved procedures put into place for this fall.  This process will continue to evolve and improve as technology and security advances continue in the coming years.

The biggest obstacle for military and overseas absentee voters is the time necessary to (1) transmit the initial application for an absentee ballot,(2) transmit to the voter the blank ballot, and (3) transmit the ballot back to the elections office.  This gets complicated for the military by infrequent mail transmissions at some military posts (including ships and submarines at sea).  This is complicated for overseas voters by the abysmal state of many countries’ postal services.

Virginia has already reduced the first transmission time to almost nothing for all voters. State law already permits any qualified absentee voter to apply for an absentee ballot by facsimile, or by sending an electronic attachment of the signed absentee ballot application to an email.  This eliminates one of the three times something may have to go through the mail system in order for someone to vote absentee.  This emergency procedure and pilot program will allow the second transmission time to be reduced to almost nothing.  With ballot transmission time reduced by two-thirds, many more overseas and military voters are likely to have their voted ballot received in time to be counted. 

Any Virginia voter may check on the status of their absentee ballot application on the Internet at the SBE website, www­.sbe.state.va.us , to confirm when the application has been received, when the ballot has been sent to the voter, and when the voted ballot was received by the local elections office.  All ballots in Virginia must be received by 7PM Election Day in order to be counted.

Virginia voters may also want to visit the SBE website for a number of other transactions, such as checking their voter registration, and checking who are their elected representatives. 

Because much of a voter’s information in Virginia is not an open record, some transactions must be accessed by use of a PIN number.  You can start the process to get a PIN from the SBE website as well.  The PIN process was put together in partnership with several Virginia governmental agencies and entities, and our thanks goes to the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, the Virginia Department of Information Technology and the Virginia Information Provider’s Network, as well as to State Board of Elections staff for making this possible.