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86–539 2014

MILITARY AND OVERSEAS VOTING IN 2012 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON HOUSE 

ADMINISTRATION 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS 

FIRST SESSION 

HELD IN WASHINGTON, DC, NOVEMBER 20, 2013 

Printed for the use of the Committee on House Administration 

( 

Available on the Internet: 

www.fdsys.gov 


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COMMITTEE ON HOUSE ADMINISTRATION 

CANDICE S. MILLER, Michigan, Chairman 

GREGG HARPER, Mississippi 

PHIL GINGREY, M.D., Georgia 

AARON SCHOCK, Illinois 

TODD ROKITA, Indiana 

RICHARD B. NUGENT, Florida 

ROBERT A. BRADY, Pennsylvania, 

Ranking Minority Member 

ZOE LOFGREN, California 

JUAN VARGAS, California 

PROFESSIONAL STAFF

KELLY CRAVEN, Staff Director 

KYLE ANDERSON, Minority Staff Director 


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MILITARY AND OVERSEAS VOTING IN 2012 

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2013 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 

COMMITTEE ON HOUSE ADMINISTRATION, 

Washington, DC. 

The committee met, pursuant to call, at 11:40 a.m., in Room 

1310, Longworth House Office Building, Hon. Candice S. Miller 

[chairman of the committee] presiding. 

Present: Representatives Miller, Harper, Gingrey, Schock, 

Rokita, Brady, and Vargas. 

Staff Present: Kelly Craven, Staff Director; Peter Schalestock, 

Deputy General Counsel; Yael Barash, Legislative Clerk; Salley 

Wood, Communications Director and Deputy Staff Director; Bob 

Sensenbrenner, Senior Counsel; Kyle Anderson, Minority Staff Director; Matt Pinkus, Minority Senior Policy Advisor; Matt 

Defreitas, Minority Professional Staff; Khalil Abboud, Minority 

Deputy Counsel; Thomas Hicks, Minority Senior Counsel; Mike 

Harrison, Minority Chief Counsel; Greg Abbott, Minority Professional Staff; and Eddie Flaherty, Minority Chief Clerk. 

The CHAIRMAN. I would now call to order the Committee on 

House Administration hearing on military and overseas voting in 

2013. And the hearing record will remain open—or, excuse me, for 

the election year of 2012. 

The hearing record will remain open for 5 legislative days so that 

Members may submit any materials that they wish to be included 

therein. 

And, again, a quorum is present, so we can proceed. 

First of all, I want to thank all my fellow committee members 

for being here today to discuss military and overseas voting. 

Every one of the brave men and women who serve our Nation in 

uniform across the globe has volunteered for the job. This is a total 

volunteer military. And they volunteer because they believe in our 

democracy, they believe in freedom, and they are willing to sacrifice so greatly to ensure that freedom and liberty are always protected. 

And yesterday, as we all know, actually marked 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address. And in closing that address, President Abraham Lincoln said, ‘‘It is rather for us to be here dedicated 

to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored 

dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave 

the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that 

these dead shall not have died in vain, that this Nation, under 

God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that the government 


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of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from 

the Earth.’’ 

And I mentioned this because the entire concept—I think this is 

an interesting thing to note—the entire concept of absentee voting 

was actually established at that time by the States, with cooperation of the Federal Government, to make certain that Union soldiers would be able to cast ballots in the Presidential election of 

1864. It was the first time our Nation used absentee balloting. 

And I am sure that it was a challenge for the States, it was a 

challenge for the Federal Government and the military, but it got 

done. And so, certainly, we should make no less an effort today for 

our military. 

Those who have worn the uniform of our Nation in defense of 

freedom and of liberty have made certain that government of the 

people, by the people, and for the people has not perished. In fact, 

it has thrived. And, today, all in our society, regardless of their 

race or sex or creed, are able to fully participate in our government 

due in large measure to their devotion. 

And as a representative here of the American people, and particularly those of us who serve on this committee, we have a solemn duty to ensure that our troops, those who protect our freedom, 

have the ability to vote and to participate in the democratic process 

for which they are so willing to risk their life. 

And it is also the solemn responsibility of our witnesses here 

today and one that I know they take very, very seriously, as well. 

And so, to our witnesses, I certainly want to express our gratitude 

to both of you for your service and dedication to fair and open and 

free and accurate and inclusive electoral processes. 

And as a former Michigan Secretary of State, I am very aware 

of the challenges each State election officer faces when trying to 

improve voting access for their military constituencies who are 

serving overseas. Myself and Mr. Rokita, as well, as a former Secretary, very familiar with the challenges of processing absentee requests and transmitting ballots overseas and, unfortunately, discarding overseas ballots that arrived after the State deadlines, as 

well, which happens far too often. However, it has been a decade 

since I have been the Secretary of State, and we have seen some 

fantastic advancements in technology as well as at the State and 

Federal level with their procedures. 

For the second consecutive Presidential election, we have seen 

reports that show that military personnel are registering to vote at 

rates 15 to 17 percentage points higher than the overall civilian 

population. Similar reports also indicate that the percentage of 

military personnel who voted slightly increased from 2008 to 2012. 

These figures, I think, tell us two things: one, that our military 

personnel want to vote; and, two, that we are slowly improving 

their ability to vote. 

And with the combined efforts of the Federal Voting Assistance 

Program administered by the Department of Defense, various State 

initiatives, and Federal legislation, as well, aimed at supporting 

both, we have really seen greater participation amongst military 

voters. 

The Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act, known as 

the MOVE Act, was the first major piece of legislation aimed at faVerDate Mar 15 2010 01:59 Feb 11, 2014 Jkt 086539 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 E:\HR\OC\A539.XXX A539

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cilitating overseas voting since 1986. And it was designed to advance DOD and State initiatives in three ways: First, it required 

that all military overseas ballots be sent at least 45 days before an 

election. And this was intended to address ballots being discarded 

because they were arriving, as we said, after the State deadlines. 

Second, it required the Department of Defense to install voting assistance offices at every military installation to assist servicemembers with their registration and absentee requests. And, finally, it 

provided grants for States to improve or to adopt programs that 

electronically transmitted ballots to our soldiers overseas. 

In 2012, 3 years after its adoption, I believe that we have seen 

success of the legislation, and we have identified areas, as well, 

where there is still room for improvement. The largest room is always the room for improvement. 

For example, since the MOVE Act grant program started, which has provided, as we say, over 40 States and local counties with $35 

million, we have seen a significant increase in the number of States 

that are adopting and testing procedures that allow servicemembers to access their blank ballots online, significantly expediting 

the process of voting from overseas. 

And we have also heard valid concerns about the legislation’s requirement that the DOD outfit every installation, even the most remote, with voting assistance representatives—a costly burden that 

could perhaps be satisfied with more timely, cost-effective methods 

like social media. 

So, today, we will hear from our witnesses about their unique experiences and observations related to the implementation of the 

MOVE Act, as well. 

Unfortunately, due to a family issue, the Michigan Secretary of 

State, Ruth Johnson, who was also going to be one of our witnesses 

today, was not able to be here. However, we have received and reviewed her testimony, which will be—her full testimony will be 

submitted into our hearing record. 

And I certainly want to acknowledge the great work that she has 

done for the State of Michigan. Particularly, I am impressed with 

her work as cofounder of Operation Our Troops Count, which is a 

program dedicated to ensuring that military voters overseas have 

the ability to vote. 

And I know that last September both Secretary Johnson and Secretary Miller participated in a bipartisan delegation to the Middle 

East to meet with our troops. I will be interested to hear a little 

bit about your experiences there, Secretary. 

Again, I just want to thank our witnesses for being here. I look 

forward to discussing this very important issue and to hearing 

about their observations, both domestically and abroad as well. 

And, at this time, I would like to recognize the ranking member 

of the committee, Mr. Brady, for his opening statement. 

Mr. BRADY. Thank you, Madam Chairman. 

And I want to thank the chairman for calling this very important 

hearing. 

I would also like to congratulate Mr. Boehmer for moving from 

active head of the Federal assistance program to officially becoming 

the director, I think. 

Mr. BOEHMER. Thank you. 


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Mr. BRADY. Last week, we celebrated Veterans Day. On that day, 

we acknowledged the sacrifice members of our Armed Forces make 

to protect our rights. It is only fitting that this committee do its 

part to make sure that they are not sacrificing their own fundamental right, the right to vote. 

Some of the important questions continue to be: What role has 

technology placed in assisting our military and overseas voters? 

How are the Department of Defense and the Federal Voting Assistance Program working together to ensure that all Americans are 

guaranteed the right to vote? What would allow secretaries of State 

to streamline this process? 

Ensuring the voting rights of all eligible Americans is this committee’s most important obligation. In the next session of this Congress, I look forward to working with Chairman Miller as we work 

to expand and intensify our efforts to uphold that responsibility. 

We must begin to address this litany of bills referred to us that are 

designed to improve our electoral process. The Voter Empowerment 

Act, introduced in the last two Congresses, addresses everything 

from the registration process to modernization to improving the 

Election Assistance Commission. 

I thank again the chairman for calling this meeting. I look forward to hearing from our witnesses. 

The CHAIRMAN. I thank the gentleman very much. 

Any other opening statements? 

Dr. Gingrey. 

Mr. GINGREY. Madam Chairman, I want to thank you for calling 

this important hearing on military and overseas voting in the 2012 

election and particularly the effectiveness of the Military and Overseas Voting Empowerment Act, MOVE. 

I would also like to welcome our witnesses, Nevada’s Secretary 

of State, Ross Miller, and Matt Boehmer, as Mr. Brady said, the 

recently appointed director of the Federal Voting Assistance Program. 

Congratulations, Mr. Boehmer. 

In December of 2009, the MOVE Act was enacted to address 

shortcomings in the voting process for military and, of course, overseas citizens and to enhance the use of available technology to facilitate their voting. Today’s hearing provides the opportunity to 

take stock of the successes and issues with the MOVE Act in the 

2012 elections and to determine how we can better promote voting 

by servicemembers, their dependents, and, of course, the lesser 

number of citizens living overseas. 

The right to vote—and Mr. Brady said this so well—the right to 

vote is a fundamental freedom. It is imperative that we ensure that 

Americans, no matter where they are in the world, that they have 

the opportunity to have their voices heard on Election Day. 

And I, too, believe that it is particularly critical to provide our 

service men and women with the chance to vote. These men and 

women are on the front lines; they are protecting our freedoms. It 

is critical to preserving, indeed, our very way of life. And in return, 

we owe them. We, indeed, owe them an effective electoral system 

that protects their right and ability to vote in the very system 

which they are fighting to safeguard. 


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Georgia is home, my State, to several military installations, including Fort Benning, Warner Robins Air Force Base, Fort Gordon, 

Dobbins Air Reserve Base in my district, to just name a few. And, 

as such, the issue of military voting hits particularly close to home 

for me. Those willing to die for our freedoms deserve the chance to 

participate in a democratic republic. 

And I am hopeful that this hearing will highlight progress in giving a voice to military and overseas voters, but also show us how 

we can improve the process to make it easier and more efficient for 

our citizens across the globe to participate in our elections. We 

must ensure that FVAP, States, and localities are making the most 

effective use of the limited resources and that our citizens are 

aware of the tools and resources that are available. 

And so I am grateful for the chance to hear from our witnesses 

today about how we can help FVAP to fulfill its mission, increase 

compliance with the MOVE Act without creating any undue burden 

on our States and localities, and ensure that those overseas know 

that their vote will count. 

Thank you, Madam Chairman. I yield back. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much, Dr. Gingrey. 

And before I introduce our two witnesses and ask for their testimony, I would ask unanimous consent to enter into the record the 

written testimony from Michigan’s Secretary of State, Ruth Johnson, and the report produced by the Secretaries of State who visited the Middle East, ‘‘Military and Overseas Voters 2012: Observations and Recommendations by a Delegation of State Chief Elections Officers.’’ 

Without objection, entered into the record. 

[The statement and report of Ms. Johnson follows:] 


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Ruth Johnson Testimony 

Nov. 20,2013 

Madam Chair and honorable members of the 

Committee on House Administration: 

Thank you for your interest in improving overseas voting and the opportunity to 

discuss, via written testimony, progress that is being made in Michigan and the 

challenges that remain for our military personnel as it concerns elections. 

As a nation, we have a duty to ensure the brave men and women protecting 

democracy around the world can participate in it here at home. 

As they fight for us, we need to fight for them by safeguarding one of their 

fundamental freedoms and guaranteeing their voice is heard on Election Day. Their 

vote - like the vote of all Americans - must count. 

That has long been the goal of OPERATION: OUR TROOPS COUNT, a 

campaign I founded with two other county clerks in 2009 when I was serving as 

Michigan's Oakland County clerk. 

As you know, the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act (or MOVE 

Act) was passed in 2009 and began implementation in 2010. Concurrently, we 

successfully pushed for state law changes to implement the MOVE Act and 

streamline military voting by allowing local clerks to email absentee ballots to 

overseas military personnel, reducing mailing delays. These changes were codified as 

part offederallaw. 

In 2012, as Michigan's secretary of state, I was part of a bipartisan delegation of State 

Chief Election Officers who travelled to the Middle East to meet with troops, military 

voting representatives and U.S. Embassy officials to examine absentee voting issues. 

Sponsored by the Department of Defense, the trip included visits to military 

installations in Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain. (Please see attached report.) 

My testimony today is a reflection of the insights gained from that trip, underscored 

by national trends with military and overseas voting and perspectives from efforts we 

have launched in Michigan. 

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Ruth Johnson Testimony 

Nov. 20, 2013 

STATISTICS 

I believe the Federal Voting Assistance Program and the 2009 federal MOVE Act have 

been effective in reducing many obstacles encountered by military and overseas voters. 

In fact, I am encouraged by the Overseas Vote Foundation report from earlier this year 

that found the number of military and overseas American voters who reported not 

receiving a ballot or receiving a ballot too late had declined in last year's presidential 

election to one-fifth of those who voted compared to a full half surveyed after the 2008 

election. 

(https:llwww.overseasvotefOundation.org/filesIOVF ElectionReport 2013 web. pdf) 

However, it is clear there are still challenges that impact voter participation - challenges 

that range from communication issues to computer access, especially in combat zones. 

In terms of national voting trends, according to the Federal Voting Assistance Program: 

• 79 percent of active duty military members were registered to vote in 2012 

compared to 77 percent in 2008. 

• Of those, 55 percent voted in the 2012 general election, 

compared to 53 percent in 2008. 

Here in Michigan, our statistics reflect the interest in what was a historic election in 2008 

and the need to do better in encouraging the return of ballots from our military personnel 

and overseas voters: 

• In 2008, of 12,840 ballots sent to military and overseas voters; 10,483 or 81.6 

percent returned. 

• In 2010, 0[2,571 ballots sent to military and overseas; 1,963 or 76.3 percent 

returned. 

• In 2012, 0[9,367 ballots sent to military and overseas voters; ?,272 or 77.6 

percent returned. 

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Ruth 10hnson Testimony 

Nov. 20, 2013 

MICHIGAN'S PROGRESS 

Michigan has made incredible strides in the fight to safeguard the votes of military 

personnel stationed abroad and all overseas voters. As Chairperson Miller knows, 

Michigan is unusual when it comes to elections because we have a rare, decentralized 

system in which 1,600 local and county clerks are actually responsible for overseeing and 

administering elections. 

Some of our strong measures include: 

• Comprehensive training and education efforts targeting our clerks paired with 

strong tracking to ensure local clerks send out absentee ballots to military and 

overseas voters 45 days prior to elections, as required by law. 

o While more than 98 percent of our local clerks adhere to this requirement, 

in 2012 some failed to meet the November election deadline, despite 

repeated reminders and warnings. 

o To protect the vote of our military and overseas voters, Attorney General 

Bill Schuette and I filed suit against those 24 communities to require the 

clerks to extend the deadline for acceptance and counting the ballots that 

were not sent by the deadline. (http://www.michigan.gov/sos/0.4670,7-

127-1640 9150-288203--,00.htrnl.) Later, we successfully initiated State 

legislation to codify those changes. 

• Improvements to our e-ballot delivery system to make it easier for clerks to send 

e-ballots to absentee voters. This cuts traditional mailing time in half 

• Improved the electronic ballot developed for voters covered by the MOVE 

Act. The process used by military/overseas voters was streamlined considerably 

and these voters were given the ability to mark their ballots online (eliminating 

the possibility of over-voting) before printing and returning the ballot to the local 

clerk. 

• Expansion of our online Michigan Voter Infonnation Center (MVIC) 

(www.michigan.gov/vote) which is now smartphone-friendly. Users can access 

contact infonnation for their local clerks, confinn they are registered to vote, view 

sample ballots (which is extremely helpful if they vote via a Federal Write-in 

Absentee Ballot) and find important links to web sites for military and overseas 

voters. 

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Ruth Johnson Testimony 

Nov. 20, 2013 

• With a $430,000 grant from the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FV AP), we 

enhanced our program that allows election officials to electronically create and 

transmit ballots to provide an online tracking system that all absentee voters can 

use to view the status oftheir absentee ballot request, their ballot transmittal from 

the clerk's office and the receipt of their voted ballot back to the clerk's office. 

• Streamlined FV AP data requests and the Election Administration and Voting 

Survey data collection process provided by the Election Assistance Commission 

(EAC) to better ensure every jurisdiction properly categorizes and reports on the 

issuance and return of military lover seas ballots. We go through an intense data 

collection process with clerks statewide every two years to fulfill these data 

requests from the federal government. 

• Obtained the email addresses of thousands of military/overseas voters which will 

enable our Bureau of Elections to more effectively communicate with these 

voters. 

• Pushed for law changes in 2012 that now allow military and overseas voters to 

have a say in local and state elections by expanding the use of the Federal Writein Absentee Ballot. 

• Launched a special military/overseas webpage for voters at: 

http://www.michigan.gov/sos/O, 1607, 7-127-1633-238835--,00.html. 

• Launched a webpage for clerks who are assisting military personnel (including a 

detailed new manual for issuing and tracking military/overseas ballots) at: 

http://www.michigan.gov/sos/0.4670,7-127-1633 11976 62664---,00.html. 

ACTION STEPS 

The bipartisan delegation of State Chief Election Officers, who visited with election 

officials, outreach coordinators, U.S. embassy officials and troops in the Middle East, 

prepared a report with recommendations. The report indicated that voter outreach efforts 

at military installations appear "to be very effective" and "it seems highly unlikely that 

any particular service member would not have been exposed to voting assistance 

messaging. " 

We found during our Department of Defense tour that efforts are being made and noted 

that we want to explore further opportunities on how states can work with the DOD, 

FV AP and the State Department to improve the policies and procedures for military and 

overseas voters while maintaining security and integrity in the electoral process. 

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Ruth 10hnson Testimony 

Nov. 20, 2013 

RECOMMENDATIONS: 

Members of the eommittee, there may be a workable solution and I would ask that federal 

officials explore a core recommendation of the delegation to tap the teclmology of the 

military's "Common Access Cards" for military voting. 

Teclmology is key to improving the return rate for overseas ballots. Michigan has 

successfully used electronic means to transmit absentee ballots to military and overseas 

voters for some time. Like many states, Michigan does not allow voted ballots to be sent 

back electronically due to security and election integrity concerns. 

The CAC card, however, is an established tool for standard identification of active-duty 

military personnel, DOD civilian employees and eligible contract personnel. The card is 

required, for example, to access defense networks and systems. Military personnel use 

the CAC system to routinely and securely sign and transmit even high security clearance 

documents. These cards could provide a sufficient means of establishing voter identity 

and a secure method oftransmitting ballots electronically. Again, I would urge federal 

officials to explore whether this is a feasible, secure option for use nation-wide. 

Again, I want to thank Chairperson Miller and the Committee for the opportunity to be 

heard via written testimony. I believe it is critical- both morally and legally - to ensure 

U.S. citizens can vote from all four comers ofthe world. 

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TABLE OF CONTENTS 

BACKGROUND ............................................................................................................... 1 

OBSERV ATIONS ............................................................................................................. 3 

Mail Balloting ................................................................................................................. 3 

Non-Military Overseas Voters ........................................................................................ 4 

Outreach .......................................................................................................................... 5 

Installation Voting Assistance Office Outreach ............................................................. 5 

CVN Outreach ................................................................................................................ 6 

Overseas Citizens Outreach ............................................................................................ 7 

RECOMMENDATIONS .................................................................................................. 8 

Recommendation #1 ........................................................................................................ . 

Explore the Use of the "Common Access Card" to Enable the Electronic Transmission 

of Absentee Ballots ...................................................................................................... 8 

Recommendation #2 ........................................................................................................ . 

Enhance Efforts to Provide Individualized Content to Absentee Voters (Direct-to-theVoter Assistance) ...................................................................................................... 10 

Recommendation #3 ........................................................................................................ . 

Enhance Coordination with MPS and State and Local Election Officials ............... 11 

CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................... 13 
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BACKGROUND 

From September 8-15, 2012, the Office of the Secretary of Defense hosted a bipartisan 

delegation of Secretaries of State who serve as their respective states' Chief Elections Officer 

and a representative of the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) to travel to U.S. 

installations in the Middle East to meet with troops, military voting representatives and U.S. 

Embassy officials. The five secretaries participating were Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller 

(2012-13 President, National Association of Secretaries of State), Arkansas Secretary of State 

Mark Martin, Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, I Louisiana Secretary of 

State Tom Schedler Jr., and Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson. FVAP's representative 

was Paddy McGuire. The Department of Defense (DOD) outlined the purpose of the tour as 

follows: 

The purpose of the NODEL (Non-Congressional Delegation) is to educate key 

Secretaries of State on civil, military and political initiatives along with absentee voter 

issues within the CENTCOM AOR (Central Command Area of Responsibility). The 

Delegation will also visit ARCENT (Army Central Command), NA VCENT (Navy 

Central Command), AFCENT (Air Force Central Command) Headquarters and embark 

overuight on USS CVN (Aircraft Canier) for familiarization briefs and tours onboard an 

operational platform.' 

The delegation's travel to Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain for this educational tour included meetings 

and briefings with high level military personnel, U.S. Embassy officials, Voting Assistance 

Officers (V AOs) and other personnel knowledgeable about military and overseas voting, as well 

as active-duty service members from all military branches. The original itinerary also included a 

tour of and meetings aboard the USS Eisenhower, but that visit was canceled due to logistical 

issues. In Kuwait, the delegation met with U.S. Ambassador Matthew Tueller and embassy staff. 

Additionally, the Kuwait visit included an extensive tour, briefmgs and meetings at Camp 

Arifjan, home to ARCENT. The delegation then travelled to AI Udeid Air Base in Qatar, where 

they met with personnel of the AFCENT. While on base, the delegation also met with the U.S. 

I See Grimes, Alison LlUldergan, Kentucky Secretary of State. Military Matters: Protecting the Rights of Those Who 

Protect Us. (September 19, 2012). 

2 Itinerary, Version 12, NODEL Secretary of State Delegation Tour. (September 24, 2012). 

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Embassy's Deputy Chief of Mission, Ian McCary. Traveling to Bahrain, the delegation then 

toured NAVCENT headquarters, where they were briefed by Vice Admiral John Miller and other 

military leaders on base. The delegation also met with members of the Marine Forces Central 

Command (Forward) (MARCENT). The visit also included a tour of the USS Ponce and USS 

Exultant, where the delegation met with crew members. While in Manama, Bahrain, the 

delegation met with U.S. Ambassador Thomas Krajeski and embassy staff then headed south to 

Isa Air Base where they toured the base and held further meetings with military personnel. 

This bipartisan trip was the second mission of a contingent of state election officials sponsored 

by the U.S. DOD. The first such tour was conducted in the Fall of 2008 and culminated in a 

similar report, "Military and Overseas Challenges: A Report from the Front.,,3 That report 

highlighted many challenges experienced by military personnel stationed overseas, often in 

combat zones, in the transmission of their ballots and was a pivotal component in building the 

bipartisan momentum needed to enact state legislation around the country making it easier for 

military and overseas voters to cast their ballots, including perhaps most notably the federal 

Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act of 2009. 

, Hoseman, Delbert, Mississippi Secretary of State. Military and Overseas Challenges: A Report from the Front. 

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OBSERVATIONS 

The process, procedures and educational voter outreach designed to ensure that military and 

overseas voters are able to timely receive and transmit Ibeir ballots prior to Election Day appear 

to be functioning very well. Legislative changes, including Ibe MOVE Act, Unifonn Military 

and Overseas Voters (UMOVA) Act and other state statutes, pertaining to military and overseas 

voting initiatives appear to have made significant progress in establishing mechanisms and 

timelines Ibat provide military personnel and overseas citizens Ibe opportunity to cast an 

absentee ballot and timely return it via a variety of transmission options so Ibat it can be counted. 

Challenges in effective voter outreach remain; additional enhancements could further simplify 

the electoral process for military and overseas voters. It is evident that Ibe efforts of FVAP, 

working in concert wilb local and state elections officials, have resulted in an effective system 

for ensuring Ibat military and overseas citizens can cast Ibeir ballots wilbin a time frame Ibat will 

ensure Ibose ballots are counted. 

Mail Balloting 

The Military Postal Service (MPS) has made significant ertbancements to Ibe ballot transmission 

process, and military voters generally reported Ibat Ibey had no issues timely receiving and 

transmitting their ballots. In fact, the timely transmission of ballots is among the highest 

priorities of U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) absentee ballot postal policy and 

procedures. USCENTCOM Regulation 25-64 mandates Ibat, "Absentee Ballots shall be afforded 

the most expeditious handling and transmission possible." During many meetings and briefings 

throughout Ibe tour, it was explained that DOD has made it clear that "ballots go before beans 

and bullets" in the priority of transportation of assets. During the delegation's tour it was 

evident Ibat the MPS did, in fact, place the highest priority on timely processing ballots and that 

there is a robust system for ensuring that military voters are able to have their voices heard 

during an election. With respect to the effectiveness of this "priority of movement message," it 

was reported that ballots to even the most remote forward operating bases would reach Ibe 

destination within ten days. 

The mission included extensive tours of postal facilities with detailed demonstrations by military 

personnel outlining Ibe process within Ibe MPS. It was abundantly clear Ibat Ibe Department of 

Defense is fully committed to ensuring timely ballot transmission and Ibat Ibere are procedures 

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in place to fulfill that commibnent. For example, the MPS applies the Express Mail Service 

Label II-DOD to each ballot from an overseas service member, ensuring expedited delivery to 

election offices within the United States. The label also provides voters and the MPS with the 

ability to track military ballots from acceptance through delivery, as well as delivery scans 

conducted by the U.S. Postal Service. Military personnel within MPS reported that the system 

functions well, with sufficient safeguards to ensure ballot security and tracking while 

simultaneously providing enough efficiency that aggressive ballot delivery timelines are met. 

The feedback from military voters relating to absentee balloting by mail was overwhelmingly 

positive. They reported that the process is familiar and effective, and most V AOs relayed that 

they were unaware of military voters who had experienced problems in voting during recent 

elections. This positive feedback is a very promising development and particularly noteworthy 

because previous reports suggested that balloting by mail in prior elections had been problematic 

and did not afford enough time for many military voters to complete the process. Notably, the 

2008 delegation of secretaries of state noted that, "the delay caused by mail delivery of ballot 

materials effectively leaves many military personnel with insufficient time to vote.'''' Similarly, 

a 2009 Pew Center on the States report, "No Time to Vote," noted that procedural delays in the 

voting process made it impossible for many military voters to timely cast their ballots.5 It 

appears that the bipartisan federal and state legislative efforts to address these deficiencies in 

absentee mail ballots, along with considerable enhancements within FV AP, in partnership with 

state and local election officials and within the MPS, have resulted in a more robust and effective 

system for timely transmission of absentee mail ballots. 

Non-Military Overseas Voters 

With respect to issues facing overseas citizens, many challenges in ensuring that eligible voters 

have adequate time to cast an absentee ballot persist. Despite the significant enhancements of 

the MOVE Act in prescribing deadlines for the preparation and transmission of ballots, U.S. 

embassy officials relayed that due to the unreliability of foreign postal systems, the dependency 

on receiving ballots via the foreign mail services can be a significant barrier to the timely 

'Id. 

S The PEW Center on the States. No Time To Vote: Challenges facing America's Overseas Military Voters. 

(January 2009). 

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transmission of ballots. However, return mail functions effectively because citizens can return 

the ballots to the embassy. Embassy officials in Kuwait reported that fax machines are available 

and are often the means of conducting business; however, some machines cannot fax to 800 

numbers, posing an issue with respect to returning ballots by fax to some elections offices. 

Outreach 

Voter outreach efforts at military installations, which include widespread and varied 

communication channels, appear to be very effective. Officials at every installation highlighted 

the significant efforts in place to reach all eligible citizens, including specific election-related 

events, email reminders and notices about the voting process, and general installation 

announcements. Additionally, FV AP banners were ubiquitous at heavily trafficked locations 

thronghout every installation the delegation visited, and it was apparent that the Armed Forces 

Network (AFN) had engaged in a vigorous public service announcement campaign related to 

voting. The outreach efforts at the installations included in the delegation's tour were so robust, 

visible and omnipresent that it seems highly unlikely that any particular service member would 

not have been exposed to votiug assistance messaging. 

Installation Voting Assistance Office Outreach 

Although the overall outreach campaigns appear to be functioning very effectively, some 

channels of communication proved more efficient than others. During interaction with many 

service members, there was a general lack of awareness of the presence of specific voter 

assistance offices at any given installation. While it was reported that certain installations did 

have an operational and functioning Installation Voter Assistance Office (IVA), military 

personnel were generally not aware of the location, or even existence, of any such office. Some 

service members questioned the efficacy of IV A offices as a means of communication, 

recommending that resources instead be focused on email,· general announcements and direct 

communication in meetings and major gatherings. 

The feedback from military personnel questioning the efficacy of brick-and-mortar IVA offices 

was of interest to the delegation because whether IV A offices have been sufficiently established 

in order to meet UOCA VA guidelines has been the subject of recent scrutiny. The recently 

released report by the Department of Defense Inspector General (DODIG) No. DODIG-2012-

123 concluded that "the Services had not established all the IVA offices as intended by the 

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MOVE Act and noted a high rate of failure in attempts to contact IVA offices identified by 

FVAP.6 This DODIG finding was the subject of further questioning during the House Committee 

on Anned Services Subcommittee on Military Personnel hearing on FV AP perfonnance on 

September 13, 2012. At that hearing, Acting FVAP Director Pam Mitchell opined that FVAP 

believes brick-and-mortar IVA offices may not be the most effective means of providing 

assistance or infonnation to military voters.' Ms. Mitchell further noted that a DODIG report 

dated March 30, 2012, entitled "Assessment of Voting Assistance Programs for Calendar Year 

2011" had made the same finding.8 

Based on the feedback received from service members, the delegation raised similar questions 

about whetherbrick-and-mortar IVA offices are a worthwhile use of resources. The Augnst 31, 

2012, DODIG report noted that funding for adequately establishing required IVA offices was not 

available and costs could exceed $15-$20 million per year. If the mandate to establish an IVA 

office on every installation is continued, a comprehensive analysis should be conducted to 

detennine whether IV A offices are worth the investment or whether the funding could be more 

effectively allocated toward communication channels more likely to efficiently reach the service 

members. 

em Outreach 

Although the delegation's tour of the USS Eisenhower was cancelled, military officials relayed 

specific feedback about the process on a carrier. They reported that several means of outreach 

have proved highly successful, including an "all-hands email" starting before the primary 

election and increasing weekly starting in July through the general election, IMC loud speaker 

announcements throughout the ship during key deadlines, daily reminders in the ship newspaper 

along with at least two feature stories and announcements at all officers and hand meetings. 

Among the challenges they face, it was reported that one major complaint from personnel on 

board was that the FV AP website was non-functional due the extremely low bandwidth 

'Inspector General, U.S. Department of Defense, Report No. DODlG-2012-123 Special Plans and Qperations: 

Assessment of the Federal Voting Assistance Program Office Implementation of the Military and Overseas Voter 

EmpoweIment Act. (August 31, 2012). 

7 Pam Mitchell, Acting Director, Department of Defense Federal Voting Assistance Program. Statement before the 

House Committee on Armed Services, Subcommittee on Military Personnel Hearing on the Federal Voting 

Assistance Program. (September 13, 2012). 

'Inspector General, U.S. Department of Defense, Report No. ooDlG-2012-068 Special Plans and Qperations: 

Assessment of Voting Assistance Programs, (March 30, 2012), 

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sometimes found on the ships. Additionally, while FV AP has added a mobile website, the site 

does not currently provide a means to fill out the required Federal Post Card Application (FPCA) 

or Federal Write-in Absentee Ballot (FW AB) online. Another reported issue was that embarked 

squadrons and staff did not have any formal communications with the IV A office until the 

individual sought them out. While each squadron has an assigned V AO, they reported a need for 

a more formal recognition of the VAO for the ship once the units deploy. 

Overseas Citizens Outreach 

With respect to overseas citizens, U.S. embassy officials reported that there are outreach efforts 

in place. Consular staff described outreach though traditional media, social media, email 

notifications and prominent banners within the embassies. They also described specific outreach 

conducted during Absentee Voting Week, which took place September 30 - October 7, 2012,9 

including outreach to American organizations and companies requesting they partake in the 

dissemination of information related to overseas voting. However, despite these vigorous 

efforts, embassy officials also reported many challenges in effectively communicating the voting 

process. Notably, officials relayed challenges in identifYing u.S. citizens in the jurisdiction. In 

most instances, if a u.S. citizen is living or traveling abroad and has not registered with the U.S. 

Department of State's "Safe Traveler Enrolling Abroad" (STEP) program, embassy staff does 

not have direct access to that individual, and therefore effective outreach is problematic. The 

embassy officials also cited specific legal barriers that exist in some states that preclude citizens 

from voting. For example, in twenty-two states, u.S. citizens who were born abroad, but have 

never resided in the U.S., are ineligible to vote absentee. 

, Press Release #25, Fedeml Voting Assistance Program. It's Absentee Voting Week - Request Your Ballot and 

Vote. (September 27, 2012). 

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RECOMMENDATIONS 

The delegation appreciates the efforts of the DOD and FV AP to engage, educate and inform state 

election officials on current practices and processes as well as unique challenges in guaranteeing 

military personnel and overseas citizens' access to voting. This tour not only underscores the 

value federal and state legislative changes have made in transformiug the electoral process for 

these voters, but also provides an opportunity for further discussion on how election officials can 

work together with DOD, FV AP and the State Department to find solutions to these challenges 

and continue to improve the policies and procedures for military and overseas voters. To this 

end, the following three recommendations are offered as a means of continuing the dialogue. 

Recommendation #1 

Explore the Use of the "Common Access Card" to Enable the Electronic Transmission of 

Absentee Ballots 

Throughout the tour, many military personnel made it abundantly clear that the preferred method 

of participating in the election process is electronic transmission of election materials, including 

unmarked and marked ballots. Since 2008, many states have made significant changes to their 

electoral processes in an effort to move toward this option. Forty-seven states currently allow 

military and overseas voters the option to receive election materials electronically. Many military 

members relayed that while the current process in many states for voting via electronic 

transmission is accessible and straight forward, the system could be improved by reducing the 

number of steps required to request and transmit their hallots. While many states currently allow 

electronic transmission of election materials, the process typically reqnires the voter to print the 

ballot, complete it by hand, sign it and then scan it into an electronic format before transmitting it 

back via email to the local election official. This process could be dramatically streamlined if a 

voter could instead simply attach a secure electronic signature or provide personal identification 

information before emailing the ballot back to the election official. For that reason, the 

delegation recommends that analysis be conducted as to whether use of the DOD Common 

Access Card (CAC) could provide a sufficient means of establishing the identity of the voter and 

a secure method of transmitting ballots electronically. 

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The CAC is a type of smart card about the size of a eredit card that serves as standard 

identification for active-duty military personnel, Selected Reserve, DOD civilian employees and 

eligible contract personnel. The CAC is required to access defense computer network and 

systems, and it functions by requiring the user to insert the card into a reader and then entering a 

personal identification number (PIN). Once a user has gained access to the computer network 

and systems, documents can be signed and securely transmitted by attaching a valid digital 

signature. This means of attestation allows for a reliable and secure means of authentication and 

further ensures that the document has not been altered in transit because it is encrypted using 

both a public and private key. Military personnel reported uniform familiarity with the CAC 

system and routinely using the system's digital signature capability to securely sign and transmit 

documents. 

As a result of the widespread familiarity with attaching digital signatures through use of the CAC 

controlled system, the delegation explored in some depth issues relating to whether the electoral 

system could be enhanced to allow for secure transmission of election materials, including 

marked ballots, within this system. In response, many military members acknowledged that 

being able to transmit election materials electrouically hy attaching an electrouic CAC signature 

would make it much easier to participate in the election process and vote. This feedback relating 

the desire to transmit ballots electronically is not new; it was cited by the 2008 DOD-sponsored 

delegation of secretaries of state in their report. That delegation of secretaries of state reported 

that, "clearly, email balloting is a solution of choice for the deployed troops who met with the 

Secretaries in Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan and Germany. Most troops stated they almost always 

had access to their email accounts, and email presents a very user-friendly way to vote." 

Additionally, with respect to Internet-based voting, they reported, "Like e-mail, Internet voting 

was a frequently expressed preference of the military voters who met the Secretaries. Secure 

Internet voting would combine the ease of email with greater security, voter authentication and 

ballot handling. Deployed military personnel are accustomed to logging on to websites to handle 

many of their affairs back home."l0 

While many military members in 2008 clearly encouraged election officials to explore the use of 

a streamlined electrouic ballot transmission process, the 2008 delegation noted concerns with 

10 Hoseman, Delbert, supra, 

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voter authentication and ballot security. This delegation shares those same ballot security 

concerns related to an electronic ballot transmission process being made available to members of 

the general public. Additionally, electronic ballot transmission may be prohibited by provisions 

of some state statutes or constitutions and those underlying policy concerns should fIrst be 

explored in depth. However, we believe the use of the CAC system, along with other security 

measures, may provide sufficient safeguards to securely transmit election materials, including 

marked ballots, and its use in the electoral system should be further explored. 

Recommendation #2 

Enhance Efforts to Provide Individualized Content to Absentee Voters (Direct-to-theV oter Assistance) 

Challenges clearly remain in delivering voting assistance information to overseas and military 

voters in a manner that does not pose an additional barrier to voting compared with traditional 

voters living within the U.S. To be certain, despite the signifIcant efforts of FVAP and state and 

local election officials, many military and overseas voters still report that the cumbersome 

process of deciphering state-by-state procedures, timelines and deadlines can be absolutely 

mystifying. Further coordination between state and local election offices and the federal 

government could streamline and facilitate navigation of the system. 

Current outreach most frequently directs voters to access the FV AP online portal, where military 

and overseas voters can fmd general and state-specifIc information on absentee voting rules and 

deadlines. This portal functions through an effective wizard system that assists voters in 

navigating the process by guiding the USer through a series of questions and then delivering 

tailored information relating to their voting jurisdiction. While many military and overseas 

voters reported that the system is easy to use and has been well received by absentee voters, the 

delegation also received comments that the system is overly cumbersome because it requires an 

affirmative commitment by the individual voter to seek out the information. This additional step 

in seeking out information related to procedures, timelines and deadlines is in many ways unique 

to absentee voters. 

One means of making the voting process easier and more efficient for overseas citizens and 

military members is to communicate jurisdiction-specifIc information directly to the voter in an 

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individualized communication. In contrast to the current system, which requires the voter to 

determine their appropriate voting jurisdiction, these communications about the voting process 

would reach the individual voter directly, perhaps by email, and contain state-specific 

information relating to procedures, timelines and deadlines. The overwhehning challenge in 

presenting information to absentee voters in this manner is the fact that information about an 

individual voter's resideuce for purposes of determining their voting jurisdiction is not always 

readily available to local and state election officials. In fact, in some instances the issue is 

complicated even further by the fact that some citizens who are eligible to vote via absentee 

ballot may not know themselves in which U.S. jurisdiction they are eligible to vote. An 

additional barrier is that even though some federal agencies may collect or maintain data relating 

to residency, legal privacy barriers prevent sharing the data with election officials. However, to 

the extent that the DOD or the Department of State maintains information pertaining to the 

residency of these absentee voters, it should be further explored whether use of the residency 

data could be enhanced to better provide these voters with individualized information relating to 

how and when they can cast their ballots. 

Recommendation #3 

Enhance Coordination with MPS and State and Local Election Officials 

A common complaint about the overseas and absentee voting process was that tracking or 

confirmation mechauisms in place within local election offices are not efficient. Several 

military members reported frustration after they had attempted to communicate with their local 

election office but had not received acknowledgement or confirmation that the communication 

had been received. For example, several voters reported that they sent their FPCA or otherwise 

requested absentee ballots but did not receive immediate confirmation that any request had been 

made or processed. This results in voter confusion as to whether the request was received by the 

election officials, whether they would in fact be able to cast a ballot in the upcoming election as 

well as a general lack of confidence that their ballots would ultimately be counted. 

Although funding was made available to the states to enhance systems relating to ballot tracking 

and communication,lI the system enhancements in some states have not been maintained and 

"Press Release #19, Federal Voting Assistance Program. FVAP Wants to Provide More Online ToolsRegistration, Absentee Ballot Application and Ballot Completion to be Done Electronically. (December, 15,2009). 

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could be further improved. In 2010, FV AP provided grants to states to create a customized, 

web-based ballot request and marking system capable of delivering an absentee ballot 

electronically. The system was precinct-specific, supported online marking of ballots or printing 

of blank ballots, and had ballot return features per state requirements. FV AP provided Tier I call 

support for military and overseas voters, and vendors provided system-specific troubleshooting. 

There was no cost to states for baseline functionality, but states had the option to provide 

additional features at their own cost. Although these grants allowed for upgrades to systems 

within election offices, the grant structure did not often provide sufficient flexibility to allow the 

states to incorporate the enhancements into their legacy systems. Outside of additional costs, the 

next biggest contributing factor to the inability to link into legacy systems was the short 

timeframe for implementation of this grant. States were given a six month timeline (April 30 -

October 31, 2010) to execute the process, including the requirement that they opt into the 

program, contribute and participate in the RFP application process, and work with the selected 

vendor to develop, test and deploy the system. The developed product, while adequate, was only 

a baseline system. These constraints provided limited time to integrate a new online absentee 

ballot marking solution into legacy systems during the six months leading into a general election. 

As a result, many ofthe upgrades were not maintained in succeeding elections. These initiatives 

should be reexamined to determine whether additional funding, resources and time could be 

effectively allocated to improve communication between local election offices and our overseas 

and military voters. 

Additionally, the administration of absentee ballots could be further enhanced by better 

integrating MPS systems and those of state and local election offices. Notably, the MPS 

maintains and operates a sophisticated mail tracking system, Automated Military Postal System 

(AMPS), which logs valuable data pertaining to the location and quantity of ballots within the 

system. Further analysis should be conducted as to whether the data from AMPS could be 

shared or integrated with local and state election offices. This data could provide to election 

officials valuable infonnation pertaining to the volume of ballots in transit, including expected 

arrival times at the local election office, which could provide significant improvements in the 

allocation of resources. Furthermore, this information could potentially be shared with 

individual voters through state and local election offices, adding enhanced ballot tracking and 

tracing capabilities. 

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CONCLUSION 

The recommendations set forth in this report are proposals that we consider the appropriate next 

steps to ensure easy access to elections infonnation and processes for military and overseas 

voters. It is our belief that in the broadest sense, the keys to doing so are the availability and use 

of technology, and the leadership of both civilian and military election officials in developing 

and maintaining procedures that facilitate military and overseas voting. 

Page 13 
27 

The CHAIRMAN. Any other opening statements? 

I would like now to take some time to introduce more formally 

our two witnesses. 

First, we are going to hear from Secretary of State Ross Miller. 

Secretary Miller, from Nevada, was president of the National Association of Secretaries of State in 2012. He is a former criminal 

prosecutor; elected Nevada’s Secretary of State in 2007. And as the 

State’s chief election officer, his accomplishments include the multijurisdictional Elections Integrity Task Force and Aurora, Nevada’s 

searchable campaign finance database. As Secretary, he led the 

election fraud investigation into ACORN in Nevada, which led to 

criminal charges against the organization. And he also participated 

in the FVAP Middle East observation mission in 2012. 

And Matt Boehmer recently was selected as permanent director, 

as has been mentioned, of the Federal Voting Assistance Program 

after serving as an acting director since January. And in his capacity as the director, he administers the Federal responsibilities of 

the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act. The act 

covers the voting rights of uniformed services personnel, their eligible family members, and all U.S. citizens residing outside of the 

United States. He has worked in the Office of the Under Secretary 

of Defense for Personnel and Readiness since 1991. Previously, he 

was director of Joint Advertising, Market Research, and Studies 

and worked at the Defense Manpower Data Center and the Defense Human Resource Activity. 

And, with that, the chair would now again welcome and recognize the Secretary of State from Nevada, Ross Miller. 

STATEMENTS OF THE HON. ROSS MILLER, SECRETARY OF 

STATE, NEVADA; AND MATT BOEHMER, DIRECTOR, FEDERAL 

VOTING ASSISTANCE PROGRAM 

STATEMENT OF THE HON. ROSS MILLER 

Mr. MILLER. Thank you, Chairman Miller, Ranking Member 

Brady, and members of the committee. 

For the record, Ross Miller, Nevada Secretary of State. 

I want to thank you for the opportunity to be here today to discuss military and overseas voting procedures and issues and, in 

particular, how they are addressed in my home State of Nevada. 

In Nevada, we have a strong military presence, most notably the 

Fallon Naval Air Station in the northern part of the State and 

Nellis Air Force Base in the south. This is an issue that I care 

deeply about since I have been Secretary of State, when I was 

elected in 2007. I have made it a significant priority to try to enhance the system so that we can ensure that the military ballots 

are transmitted in a timely manner, and I think we have made significant progress. 

Just to note, in the last 2012 election, Nevada transmitted 6,449 

ballots to those covered voters, and 96 percent of those ballots were 

returned. Only 265 were not counted for various reasons. 

That said, there is clearly room for improvement. Most noteworthy, perhaps, is the fact that 42 percent of Nevada’s military 

and overseas ballots were requested after the 45-day MOVE Act 

deadline. That number is clearly too high. It indicates that many 


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28 

unregistered UOCAVA voters had not indicated their UOCAVA eligibility prior to that deadline. And it indicates that many UOCAVA 

voters who did not request a ballot for the primary would have 

automatically—who then would have automatically received the 

general election ballot by the 45-day deadline. 

Despite the progress that we have made, I want to point out a 

significant initiative, and that was an overseas trip that Chairman 

Miller referenced. It included a bipartisan delegation of Secretaries 

of State—three Republicans, two Democrats. We traveled to Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain in a trip that was sponsored by the Department of Defense in which FVAP accompanied us in an effort 

to try to come up with some recommendations and to survey how 

this process was coming. 

Overall, it was very productive. And at the outset, I will note 

that the military personnel that are overseeing the process of ensuring that those ballots get to our troops in time are doing significant work. They made it clear throughout process that the transmission of ballots is the highest priority. As they said over and over 

again, ballots go before beans and bullets, in terms of the transportation of assets. 

FVAP is also doing an outstanding job. In every base that we visited and every troop that we talked to, their outreach efforts were 

significant. And, clearly, the troops were aware of the things that 

they were doing in order to make sure that they got the ballots. 

That said, we do have a few recommendations that I want to explore with you. 

The first is that we heard time and time again that the preferred 

method from our troops, in order to receive the ballots, is that they 

be able to receive the ballots electronically and then transmit them. 

There is a little bit of a history to this that some of the Members 

may remember. Not so long ago, Secretaries of State across the 

country changed the legislation in order to allow for ballots to be 

transmitted by fax. That wasn’t working too well because in many 

forward operating bases they don’t have access to fax machines. We 

then took an additional step and allowed those ballots to be transmitted by email. That makes it more convenient, but it still requires them to print out the ballot and scan it and send it back. 

And in many of those instances, they don’t have access to a scanner. 

And so the recommendation that we came forward with was to 

explore the use of a Common Access Card to enable the electronic 

transmission of absentee ballots. This is a card that members of 

the military are familiar with. It provides a level of security that, 

at least in Nevada, we are comfortable with. And so we moved forward with legislation to allow that to happen. We can transmit the 

ballot to them electronically, they can fill it out electronically, and 

transmit it. It is a much more streamlined process, and I think it 

will make the process much more efficient for members of the military. 

The second recommendation that this bipartisan group came up 

with is to enhance efforts to provide individualized content to absentee voters, direct-to-the-voter assistance. 

FVAP currently retains an online portal where they direct, 

through wizard technology, the information that any military overVerDate Mar 15 2010 01:59 Feb 11, 2014 Jkt 086539 PO 00000 Frm 00030 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6602 E:\HR\OC\A539.XXX A539

tjames on DSK6SPTVN1PROD with HEARING
29 

seas voter would need in terms of timelines, basic procedures in 

certain States. The feedback that we heard was that the system is 

easy to use and has been well received by absentee voters, but it 

is nevertheless cumbersome because it requires an affirmative commitment by that individual voter to seek out that information. 

The recommendation that we have is to seek out ways to communicate jurisdiction-specific information directly to the voter in an 

individualized communication. There are a couple of barriers that 

are outlined in our report to potentially doing that, but we think 

it should be explored. 

And, finally, the final recommendation is to enhance coordination 

with the Military Postal Service and State and local election offices. 

The military postal system operates a very sophisticated system 

in order to track where ballots are in the process and transmit that 

information to the appropriate resources. Funding was made available in 2010 in order to enhance State systems to be able to further 

track those ballots, but the common complaint that we heard from 

military personnel is, if they filled out their forms and they completed the basic requirements, oftentimes there was no confirmation, and so they weren’t aware whether or not that request had 

been received in a timely manner. We think that by moving towards further communication with the military system and State 

and local election officials, that could clearly be enhanced. 

And then, additionally, the administration of absentee ballots 

could be further enhanced by better integrating the military postal 

systems and those of State and local election offices. The Automated Military Postal System, often referred to as AMPS, logs valuable data. And if that information were shared with State and 

local election offices, it would clearly help the efficiencies in maintaining the election. 

That said, we obviously have provided a copy of the full report 

to the committee, and we welcome any questions that you may 

have. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much. We appreciate that testimony. 

[The statement of Mr. Miller follows:] 


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STATE OF NEVADA 

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE 

Testimony of Secretary of State Ross Miller (NV) 

U.S. House of Representatives 

Committee on House Administration 

November 20, 2013 

Chairman Miller, members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to be 

here today to discuss military and overseas voting procedures and issues, and in 

particular how they are addressed in my home state of Nevada. 

We have a significant military presence in Nevada, most notably at the Fallon 

Naval Air Station in the Northern part of the state, and at Nellis Air Force Base in 

the South. Many of the troops and their families are, of course, from other states 

and are now making their home in Nevada, and we value their service and 

consider it a priority to serve them in return by ensuring that they have every 

opportunity to participate in the democratic process that they protect around the 

world. 

I had the opportunity in September of last year to visit the Middle East with some 

of my fellow Secretaries of State: In Kuwait we met with U.S. Ambassador 

Matthew Tueller and had extensive discussions of voter outreach efforts for U.S. 

troops and citizens living abroad. Military leadership briefed the secretaries on 

the U.S. Army Central voting assistance program. As you know, that program is in 

place to ensure successful absentee voting during the election year. 

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STATE OF NEVADA 

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE 

The Secretaries of State also met with assigned officers at military installations to 

resolve any outstanding issues, given that we were entering the final two months 

prior to the 2012 elections. The stop in Kuwait also included a tour and an 

extensive presentation at the u.S. Army Post Office to learn how military ballots 

are processed and transported. At AI Udeid Air Force Base in Qatar, we were 

briefed regarding the Combined Air Operations Center voting assistance program. 

We also met with the Qatar Embassy regarding voter outreach and toured the 

military postal facilities. 

Upon conclusion of this eye-opening visit, the other Secretaries of State and I 

prepared a report addressing our concerns and the problems we saw. The report 

also provides recommendations for improving access to elections information and 

processes for military and overseas voters - the keys being the availability and 

use of technology, as well as the leadership of both civilian and military election 

officials in developing and implementing procedures that will facilitate military 

and overseas voting. A copy of the report was submitted with my written 

testimony. 

I have been and continue to be a strong advocate of changes to Nevada's military 

and overseas voting laws to ensure all ballots are received on time and counted in 

elections. I have worked with the Nevada Department of Veteran Services and 

local elections officials to support and pass legislation which allows Nevada voters 

overseas to register to vote and to request and submit absentee ballots 

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STATE OF NEVADA 

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE 

electronically. I have also worked to adopt into state law language that was 

closely aligned with the provisions from the federal Military and Overseas Voter 

Empowerment (MOVE) Act. 

In the 2012 election, 6,449 ballots were transmitted to covered voters and of the 

6,110 absentee ballots and federal write in ballots that were returned to our 

counties and my office, 5,871 of them were counted - 265 of the ballots returned 

were not counted. 152 of those ballots were not received on time. 17 ballots 

were rejected because of issues with the voter's signature. The remaining 96 

uncounted ballots were a result of various administrative errors made by the 

UOCAVA voters, which reflect on the various issues that UOCAVA voters still 

encounter. In sum, more than 15% of Nevada's military-overseas paper ballots 

were either not returned, returned as undeliverable, or spoiled. As with the 

rejected ballots, this number could have been significantly lower if UOCAVA 

voters were more aware of the resources available, or had better access to those 

resources and the requisite technology. 

It is notable that 42% of Nevada's military and overseas ballots were requested 

after the 45 day MOVE Act deadline. I believe that number is higher than it 

should be, because it represents voters that were not registered to vote; voters 

that had not indicated their UOCAVA eligibility prior to the 45-day deadline; AND 

voters that had not requested a military or overseas ballot for the primary 

election. 

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STATE OF NEVADA 

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE 

Of course, the intention of the military and overseas voters legislation is to make 

it easier to access and participate in the electoral process while absent from one's 

residence. This is exactly what our Middle East Delegation reported in their 

observations and recommendations. The number one recommendation in the 

2012 Report suggests using the military's Common Access Card to make it easier 

to access a military voter's registration, absentee ballot request, and balloting 

materials. Nevada is currently working to streamline the resources available to 

military and overseas citizens as recommended in the Report. In addition to 

expanding access to a voter's ballot, systems like the one Nevada is currently 

developing will allow military and overseas citizens the ability to simultaneously 

incorporate voter registration and absentee ballot request documents. 

My office is taking advantage of enabling legislation that allows our military and 

overseas voters to use electronic and digital signatures on election documents by 

developing a convenient, streamlined online ballot delivery system, which will 

allow our covered voters to request, mark and deliver a ballot to their county 

without the need of a printer or scanner. 

Doing so will significantly reduce the number of ballots not counted by providing 

local election officials with everything they need upfront. As online ballot 

preparation evolves, the systems have been streamlining the process into a few 

steps that take minutes to complete as opposed to making multiple 

communications over several days with a voter's local election office. 

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STATE OF NEVADA 

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE 

Spearheaded by the Federal Voting Assistance Program in 2010, these systems 

not only provide benefits to the voter but the local election offices, which 

translates into more ballots returned and fewer ballots rejected. States with 

online ballot marking systems continue to demonstrate higher participation rates 

than those of the general public. 

We are very excited about this development and are looking forward to 

significantly improved numbers for our military and overseas voters in future 

elections in Nevada. The project will take advantage of existing technology and 

increase access and availability for our military voters as recommended in the 

Middle East Report. 

Thank you for the opportunity to testify on this important issue today. I would be 

happy to answer any further questions the committee may have. 

5 
35 

The CHAIRMAN. The chair now recognizes Mr. Boehmer for his 

testimony. 

STATEMENT OF MATT BOEHMER 

Mr. BOEHMER. Thank you. 

Chairman Miller, Ranking Member Brady, and distinguished 

members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to discuss the Federal Voting Assistance Program and its mission to ensure that uniformed services personnel, their eligible family members, and our overseas citizens are aware of their right to vote and 

have the tools and resources they need to do so from anywhere in 

the world. 

As Congress and the courts have repeatedly affirmed, voting is 

a citizen’s most fundamental right. Recognizing military and overseas voters face unique challenges participating in U.S. Elections, 

Congress created a set of protections to make voting in Federal 

elections easier and more accessible, which are codified in the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act. This year, we 

put forward recommendations to further strengthen these safeguards for military and overseas voters. 

In fulfilling our responsibilities under the law, the Federal Voting Assistance Program is committed to two voting assistance tenants: promoting the awareness of the right to vote and eliminating 

barriers for those who choose to exercise that right. 

At FVAP, we provide assistance every day. Voters seeking assistance find a myriad of resources available, including an expertly 

staffed call center, well-trained voting assistance officers, and a robust Web site at fvap.gov, where voters can find intuitive online 

tools to help them complete their voter registration, ballot application forms, as well as the backup ballot. We also work with State 

and local election officials, such as Secretary Miller, ensuring they 

are aware of the law’s requirements and helping them serve our 

military and overseas citizen voters. 

In 2012, FVAP made great strides to improve processes, programs, and our tools. As detailed in our post-election report to Congress, FVAP launched several new voting initiatives and executed 

an aggressive communication and media engagement plan to promote the awareness of our resources available to our military and 

overseas citizen voters. 

Our post-election survey data revealed that when servicemembers use one of the Department’s resources, they are more likely 

to return their ballot. However, data also show us that we need to 

do more to raise awareness of these voting resources provided by 

FVAP. It is my personal goal, as the new director of FVAP, to ensure that we accomplish this. I have spent my career in the Department of Defense working to strengthen the all-volunteer force, 

and I am honored now to work to enhance the voting ability for 

those who defend that very freedom. 

For the 2014 election cycle, we are expanding several key outreach efforts and launching some new initiatives to raise awareness of our voting resources. Specifically, FVAP is developing new 

public service announcements aimed at our overseas citizens and 

military spouses. We are providing customized digital toolkits to 

our voting assistance officers, election officials, advocacy organizaVerDate Mar 15 2010 01:59 Feb 11, 2014 Jkt 086539 PO 00000 Frm 00037 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6602 E:\HR\OC\A539.XXX A539

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36 

tions, and overseas companies with a large number of U.S. citizen 

employees. We are also targeting our younger population with an 

integrated communications plan leveraging social media and mobile devices. 

Military members are consistently registered to vote at a rate 

equal to or greater than that of the general population. But registration isn’t the end of the story. As you know, servicemembers 

are an especially mobile population, and keeping up-to-date contact 

information on file at the appropriate election office is an ongoing 

challenge. 

To overcome this obstacle, FVAP is working on two new initiatives to automate address updates and inform servicemembers 

proactively to notify their election official of any new address. I 

look forward to keeping you up to date on the progress of these efforts throughout 2014. 

The pace at FVAP hasn’t slowed since the 2012 election, and we 

continue to make ongoing improvements to our core services. This 

year, we optimized our prescribed absentee voting forms to improve 

clarity and usability. We updated the Voting Assistance Guide and 

our interactive training modules for use by the military and Department of State voting assistance officers as well as our State 

and local election officials. 

Also in 2013, FVAP provided an additional round of research 

grants to 11 States and localities. These grants funded two research areas: the first, the effect of online blank ballot delivery; 

and the second explores the efficiencies of providing a single Statewide point of contact for our military and overseas voters. 

Madam Chairman, members of the committee, thank you for the 

opportunity to speak with you today about our efforts in the 2012 

election cycle as well as the upcoming 2014 election. Voting is an 

individual’s choice and personal responsibility, and FVAP is committed to providing the best voting assistance possible to those who 

want to vote, whether they are studying abroad, fighting 

downrange, or serving on U.S. soil. 

Thank you, and I look forward to our discussion and answering 

your questions. 

[The statement of Mr. Boehmer follows:] 


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STATEMENT OF 

MR. MATT BOEHMER 

DIRECTOR 

DEPARMENT OF DEFENSE 

FEDERAL VOTING ASSISTANCE PROGRAM 

BEFORE THE 

COMMITTEE ON HOUSE ADMINISTRATION 

HEARING ON 

MILITARY AND OVERSEAS VOTING IN THE 2012 ELECTION 

November 20, 2013 
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Chairman Miller, Ranking Member Brady and distinguished members of the Committee, 

thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the Department of Defense's 

(DoD) Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) and its mission to ensure Uniformed Services 

personnel, their eligible family members and overseas citizens are aware of their right to vote 

and have the tools and resources to do so - from anywhere in the world. 

As Congress and the courts have repeatedly affirmed, voting is a citizen's most 

fundamental right. Traditionally, voting is an interaction between individual citizens, who 

receive, mark and cast a ballot, and a State or local govermnent that distributes, collects and 

counts the ballots. Recognizing that absent members of the military, their families and U.S. 

citizens living abroad face unique challenges to participating in U.S. elections, Congress created 

a set of protections to make voting in Federal elections easier and more accessible. These 

protections are codified in the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (42 U.S.C. 

§ 1973ff, et seq., hereafter "UOCAVA" or "the Act"), most recently amended by the 2009 

Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act. 

For military and overseas citizen voters, as for all U.S. citizens, the decision to cast a vote 

in an election is a personal choice. The mission ofFV AP is to provide assistance to Service 

members and overseas citizens in exercising this choice. First, FV AP assists voters directly 

through voter education campaigns to raise awareness of the right to vote by absentee ballot and 

by offering easy-to-use online tools and resources. Second, FVAP assists the Military Services 

and the Department of State (DOS) by providing training tools and other resources to support 

their specific voting assistance programs. Third, FV AP assists State and local election officials 

to ensure they are aware of the requirements of the Act, and to support their efforts to expand 

services provided to absent military and overseas citizen voters. Through these assistance 

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efforts, FV AP optimizes the opportunity for absent Uniformed Service and overseas citizen 

voters to exercise their voting rights. 

The remainder of this statement focuses in greater detail on the challenges UOCAVA 

voters face, FV AP's accomplishments during the 2012 election cycle and preparations for 2014. 

UOCAVA Voting Challenges 

The two primary obstacles faced by military and overseas citizen voters are time and 

complexity. For absentee voters, the voting process may take significantly more time compared 

to that of the general population. Ballots and other election materials may face lengthy roundtrip transit time, especially if absentee voters and election officials rely upon foreign postal 

services to reach more remote areas of the world. Absentee voting rules are complex. For 

example, the deadline for ballot requests, even within a State, can vary based on the geographic 

location of the voter, and the eligibility of the voter to participate in local elections can vary 

based on whether the voter is a Service member or a civilian. Military families face an 

additional challenge given they are an especially mobile population, often moving between or 

during election ballot mailing periods. To successfully receive, mark and return their ballots, 

these voters must keep their registration and ballot request information current with their local 

election official- an important action to be sure, but only one of many important tasks for 

families when moving or when preparing for a loved one's deployment. 

A key element of the MOVE Act amendments to UOCAVA sought to address the transittime obstacle by placing several requirements on States to ensure more timely delivery of ballots. 

States are now required to transmit any previously requested blank absentee ballots to voters at 

least 45 days before any election for Federal office. States must offer at least one means of 

electronic transmission (e.g., email, online download or fax) for sending blank ballots and 

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materials to voters. Sending blank ballots to voters electronically significantly reduces a ballot's 

round-trip transit time. As demonstrated above, hurdles remain due to the complexity of the 

process, and FV AP is working to reduce them by directly assisting voters. 

2012 Election Cycle 

Serving Voters 

FV AP provides tools and resources to make the absentee voting process as simple and 

accessible as possible for military members, their eligible family members and overseas citizens. 

As required by UOCA VA, FV AP provides online assistants that guide voters through the process 

of filling out the Federal Post Card Application (FPCA) and Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot 

(FWAB), which are key absentee voting forms. At the end ofthe voter's experience, each is 

provided a completed form to sign and send to their election official. The online assistants at 

FVAP.gov reflect the individual absentee voting rules for all 50 States, the territories and the 

District of Columbia, by seamlessly prompting voters to fill out only the infonnation required by 

their voting jurisdiction. In 2012, to ensure UOCAVA voters could participate in all primary 

elections for Federal office, FV AP adjusted the online FW AB assistant to accommodate primary 

election rules, including Presidential primaries, within each of the States and successfully 

incorporated newly established redistricting data. 

UOCA V A requires FV AP to send voting notifications to military members 90, 60 and 30 

days prior to a regularly scheduled Federal election. FVAP sends messages to all ".mil" email 

addresses directing them to FVAP.gov, making it easy for Service members to take action. In 

2012, FVAP sent a total of 18.4 million emails to military members, to include communications 

sent in January, February and June, then 90,60,30,15,10 and three days prior to the General 

Election. Additionally, the Voting Assistance Officers (V AO) network established by the 

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Services and DOS disseminated FV AP voting information in person and via electronic means. 

Following each of these messages, FVAP experienced significant increases in traffic on 

FVAP.gov. During the calendar year 2012, FVAP.gov received more than 20 million page 

views. 

In addition to email messaging, FV AP developed and executed a comprehensive 

communication and media engagement plan to promote awareness of the resources available at 

FVAP.gov. The Armed Forces Network heavily promoted voting videos, and FV AP placed print 

advertisements in Military Times, Stars and Stripes and Military Spouse, which were 

complemented with targeted placement of online advertisements. 

U.S. citizens residing abroad can be more difficult to reach than their military cohort due 

to their greater geographic dispersion and the lack of a centralized method to make contact with 

this group. To address this, FV AP partners with the DOS Voting Assistance Officer network to 

ensure voting assistance is provided to this important population. During the 2012 election 

cycle, FV AP conducted several outreach activities specifically targeted at overseas citizens: 

online advertising; a video contest resulting in a new PSA for overseas citizens; blogger network 

participation; and various social media efforts. Other key outreach activities are detailed in 

FVAP's 2012 Post-Election Report to Congress (see enclosure). 

As social media has become integrated into the daily routine of many citizens, FV AP is 

active on popular networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Linkedln. These platforms enable 

two-way conversations with voters and offer an effective means to disseminate news and 

information quickly within the military and overseas citizen communities. FV AP social media 

efforts primarily target 18- to 24-year-old members of the military who, like their general 

population counterparts, have less experience voting and may be less familiar with the process. 

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For the 2012 General Election, FV AP provided a professional call center to handle 

voting-related questions from military and overseas voters utilizing long-established toll-free 

numbers. The call center handled more than 60,000 requests for assistance in the form of calls, 

web chats, emails and faxes. 

While FV AP is the Federal source of information for absent military and overseas citizen 

voters, it is by no means the only source of information. Individual States set their own electoral 

policies and procedures. Each State, as required by the Act, maintains a webpage dedicated to 

military and overseas voters. Several advocacy groups provide voting information and tools to 

military and overseas voters, and FV AP often works with these groups to share messaging and 

ensure accuracy of information. 

UOCA V A requires expedited mail delivery service for marked absentee ballots of 

overseas Uniformed Services personnel in general elections and is facilitated by the U.S. Postal 

Service and Military Postal Service Agency (MPSA). The voted ballots of overseas Service 

members and their eligible family members are processed using the Express Mail Service (EMS) 

Label II-DoD. Upon receipt from military voters, the MPSA applies the label to each ballot, 

ensuring expedited delivery to the local election office upon arrival in the U.S. The label 

provides voters and MPSA the capability to track ballots from acceptance through delivery using 

scans at the initial intake point, en route and upon arrival at the U.S. International Gateway and a 

final delivery scan conducted by the U.S. Postal Service upon delivery to the election office. 

During 2012, the overall average transit time of voted ballots from the absentee voter to election 

offices was 5.6 days - more than a day faster than UOCA VA's seven-day requirement. (See 

enclosure for details regarding the collection and delivery of overseas military ballots.) 

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Several State Chief Election Officers witnessed DoD's commitment to timely ballot 

transmission while on a trip to Southwest Asia during the 2012 election cycle. A bipartisan 

delegation of five Secretaries of State traveled to Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain in September 2012 

to observe military and State Department voting assistance activities and to talk with Uniformed 

Service members and overseas citizens about the absentee voting process. FV AP sponsored a 

similar trip in 2008. FV AP and Navy staff escorted the Secretaries of State as they met with 

troops, V AOs, senior military commanders and U.S. Embassy staff, and visited MPSA facilities. 

The bipartisan group of Secretaries of State jointly drafted a report on the trip and presented their 

observations at the annual meeting of the National Association of Secretaries of State. 

Supporting the Services 

The Act directs the Military Services to administer their own voting assistance programs, 

including requiring the designation ofInstallation Voter Assistance (IVA) Offices on military 

installations. Department of Defense Instruction (DoDI) 1000.04, "Federal Voting Assistance 

Program" outlines the requirements and procedures the Services must follow in establishing and 

maintaining voting assistance programs, including assigning one V AO to each military unit. 

To assist the Services with these requirements, FV AP provides in-person and webinar 

training, self-paced courses, handbooks and document templates for all personnel providing 

voting assistance. The training suite provides the Services with an "IVA Office in a box" 

turnkey course. FVAP provides these training materials on FV AP.gov and through the network 

of Service Voting Action Officers. In 2012, FV AP staff conducted assistance visits and inperson "train-the-trainer" workshops at 43 installations. FV AP continues to make these offices a 

priority and conducted more than 50 site visits earlier this year to provide training, assistance and 

feedback to ensure IVA Office staffs fully understand their responsibilities. While FV AP 

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provides assistance, the Services are responsible for execution and compliance, and are required 

to submit annual assessment reports to FVAP. The Department of Defense Inspector General 

conducts its own assessment of the Services' respective voting assistance programs; its April 

2013 report confirmed the Services' programs are compliant with UOCAVA. 

FV AP provides in-person training for Unit Voting Assistance Officers (UV AOs), 

conducts webinars, and last year FV AP developed and deployed a self-paced UVAO online 

training for greater convenience and flexibility for V AOs in geographically separated locations 

and those assigned to their VAO duties closer to the election. 

To prepare for the 2012 election, FV AP conducted UVAO training workshops at 81 

military installations and DOS posts around the world and provided 42 webinar training sessions. 

In addition to supporting the Services, FV AP assists DOS in providing voting assistance at 

embassies and consulates around the world. In 2012, FVAP and DOS partnered to host 22 inperson workshops for overseas citizens and held a series of conference calls for consular officers 

to address questions from overseas voters and organizations of American citizens abroad. (See 

enclosure for further information regarding military and DOS voting assistance programs.) 

Building State Capabilities 

By law, the Department consults with State and local election officials to ensure they are 

aware of the reqnirements of the Act. Additionally, FV AP works closely with State election 

officials as they expand and improve the services available to absent Uniformed Service and 

overseas citizen voters. 

FVAP expanded its partnerships with States during the 2012 election cycle and awarded 

more than $25 million in 35 research grants to States and localities between October 2011 and 

June 2012. The Electronic Absentee Systems for Elections (EASE) research grants explore 

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technological improvements such as online ballot delivery, online voter registration, automated 

ballot duplication, online ballot requests and online ballot tracking. It is important to note 

awardees are not pennitted to use grant award funds to develop any system for the electronic 

return of voted ballots in a live election. For the next five years, awardees are required to submit 

detailed data reports to FV AP following each Federal election in which a grant-funded tool or 

system is used. 

Although too early to identify trends, research grant recipients Minnesota and Louisiana 

reported the rejection rate for absentee ballots from military and overseas voters was lower than 

the rate for absentee ballots cast by members of the general, domestic population. Additionally, 

blank ballot delivery systems were well-received by voters and local election officials. FV AP' s 

2013 Annual Report to Congress will provide a more comprehensive analysis of research data 

gathered during the 2012 General Election, but further details regarding the grant program and 

FV AP's partnership with the States are available in the enclosed 2012 Post-Election Report to 

Congress. 

FVAP announced a second ronnd of research grants in May 2013. EASE 2 grants are 

more focused and concentrate on the development and effect of online blank ballot delivery tools 

and the establishment and effect of a single point of contact in a State election office for the 

transmission of election materials. In 2002, the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) recommended 

each State establish a single office for sending and receiving election materials, including voted 

ballots, from military and overseas voters. Since HA V A, only one State, Maine, has adopted this 

Congressional recommendation (Alaska established its single office prior to HA VA). FV AP 

believes the establishment of a single point of contact will help streamline a complexity inherent 

to the UOCAVA voting process. State adoption of these procedures could reduce the list of 

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thousands of election offices nationwide to only 55 one for each State, territory and the 

District of Columbia. Currently, voters have to comb through a list of local offices if they do not 

have immediate access to FVAP's automated tools or similar online resources. 

Post-Election Analysis 

Following the 2012 General Election, FVAP surveyed five stakeholder populations. The 

Defense Manpower Data Center used industry standards in the development and administration 

ofthe surveys of active duty military, military spouses, UVAOs, DOS VAOs and local election 

officials. 

As the enclosed 2012 Post-Election Report to Congress illustrates, active duty military 

voter registration and participation rates remained steady from the 2008 election. In terms of 

evaluating overall approach and effectiveness of the DoD network of voting assistance resources, 

FVAP's post-election analysis revealed a statistically significant relationship between the use of 

DoD voting assistant resources and the likelihood of an active duty member actually voting and 

returning his or her absentee ballot. For 2014, FV AP will attempt to further isolate and refme 

this relationship. The survey results also provided FV AP with valuable information regarding 

opportunities for improvement such as increasing awareness of the tools and resources available 

to voters and election officials. 

While voter participation rate may be an indicator, it does not provide a complete picture 

ofFVAP's ability to effectively assist voters or reduce obstacles to voter success. The available 

suite of DoD voting assistance tools work together to support each UOCAVA voter's needs and 

ability to participate in the electoral process. To enable better measurement of program 

effectiveness and research the most appropriate methods for evaluating military voter behavior 

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and trends, FV AP is working with a Federally Funded Research and Development Center and 

expects recommendations in 2014. 

2014 Preparations 

FVAP's 2014 election cycle preparations are in full swing. FV AP is working with the 

Services on a comprehensive Voting Action Plan to increase military and eligible family member 

awareness of voting resources and is expanding several key outreach efforts and launching new 

initiatives, tools and resources for FV AP stakeholder groups. 

Specifically, FV AP is developing new Public Service Announcements targeting overseas 

citizens and military spouses, launching a redesigned and dynamic website and providing 

customized digital toolkits for V AOs, election officials, advocacy organizations and overseas 

companies with large numbers of U.S. citizen employees. 

This year, in further preparation for 2014, FV AP has optimized absentee voting forms to 

improve clarity and usability, refreshed interactive training modules for VAOs and election 

officials and updated State absentee voting regulations, laws, deadlines and procedures in 

FVAP's newly redesigned Voting Assistance Guide. 

Conclusion 

Madam Chairman, members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to speak 

with you today about FVAP's efforts during the 2012 election cycle and its preparations for the 

upcoming 2014 election. 

Voting is fundamentally an individual's right, choice and personal responsibility. FVAP 

provides for those who want to vote a myriad of resources, including a call center, well-trained 

VAOs, automated tools and an intuitive website at FVAP.gov. FVAP is working diligently to 

increase awareness of these resources to further ensure any Uniformed Service member, eligible 

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family member or overseas citizen who wants to vote is able to successfully cast his or her ballot 

from anywhere in the world. I look forward to answering your questions. 

12 
49 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you both so very, very much. I appreciate 

your testimony. 

Secretary, I was trying to take a couple notes when you were 

talking, particularly when you mentioned you had 6,429 ballots 

sent overseas, 96 percent returned, and only 265 not counted. First 

of all, hats off. That is a fantastic number. A lot of States would 

love to have those kind of percentages. So that is really a tribute 

to you and your staff and all of your election officials through Nevada that you have that kind of percentage. 

Then I was also taking a couple of notes as you were talking 

about some specific recommendations, which, as I told the both of 

you before we started the hearing, really, that is really one of the 

impetuses for this hearing and something that I want to—and I 

know all the members of this committee share a commitment to not 

just hearing about best practices and various things that have happened but what else can we do, particularly as a committee, to assist in every way. So I am always looking and taking notes when 

have you have some specific ideas. 

One about the Military Postal Service. I guess, for some reason, 

I hadn’t really thought too much about that before until you were 

talking, Secretary, about that the troops couldn’t get confirmation 

of their ballots once they were put into the Military Postal Service 

and how the Military Postal Service should be able to integrate better with the civilian postal service. 

And since I have both of you two experts right here at this table 

talking to one another about how that—could you expand on that 

a little bit maybe so that I can understand exactly what we might 

be able to do and how the Department of Defense with their Military Postal Service could help with that? 

Mr. MILLER. Thank you, Chairman Miller. 

Yes, one of the common complaints about the overseas and absentee voting process was that the tracking and confirmation mechanisms in place with the local election offices were not sufficient. 

Several military members reported some frustration that they had 

attempted to communicate with their local election office but had 

not received any acknowledgment or confirmation that their communication had been received—in other words, that they attempted 

to register to vote or requested an absentee ballot and hadn’t gotten any confirmation from the local election officials. 

And so the recommendation is to enhance those systems. Notably, in 2010, FVAP provided grants to a number of States, Nevada 

included, in order to enhance our systems so that we could do just 

that. Unfortunately, the timeline that was provided under the 

grants was very limited. And, in many instances, the restrictions 

on the grants did not allow us to integrate it into our legacy systems. And so many of those projects and initiatives were not continued. 

And that is, in fact, the case in Nevada. We had a superb system 

that was put in place for the 2010 election under a very tight 

timeline, but because of the limitations with the grant, we weren’t 

able to expand it to future elections. And that is unfortunate. We 

would like to build a system that would integrate with our system 

so that we could take advantage of those services. 


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50 

The other recommendation with regard to enhancing coordination with the Military Postal Service and State and local election 

officials is that the military has a very sophisticated system, the 

AMP System, the Automated Military Postal System, which logs 

data as to where those ballots are in the system. That information 

to date, to my awareness, is not shared with local or State election 

offices. And if we had that information, that would obviously help 

us prepare for the number of ballots that could be headed our way 

so that we could more efficiently run the election. And I think, 

through that coordination, obviously, we would see significant results. 

The CHAIRMAN. I appreciate that. 

Mr. Boehmer, maybe you could comment on that. I am just 

thinking, as the Secretary is talking, perhaps you can’t share that 

information because you don’t want to let everybody know where 

everybody is at sometimes, as well. That may be some reason. I am 

not sure. What is the reason? 

Mr. BOEHMER. I can certainly share that information with the 

Director of the Military Postal Service Agency. 

From what I know, they are actually working on a couple of new 

efforts. It is a partnership with the United States Postal Service as 

well as with the Department of State. It is called the MILPARS. 

And it takes the Postal Address Redirection System that we all 

currently use—it is that little yellow sticker that you get on mail 

when someone has moved. They are coordinating that system now 

for military addresses, both military post offices and diplomatic 

post offices. 

So I know that MPSA is working on this issue, they are working 

it in partnerships. But I certainly can pass that information on to 

the Director of MPSA. 

The CHAIRMAN. Okay. I appreciate that. 

Also, Director Boehmer, first of all, the Inspector General had a 

somewhat critical report, actually, on the progress of establishing 

installation voting assistance offices at all the individual military 

facilities. And I am just wondering if you could talk a little bit 

about that. 

And then I will then ask the Secretary, when had you your opportunity to be overseas talking to our brave men and women, 

what was their thought about actually having a voter assistance 

station there? Like, for instance, if you were in Bahrain with the 

Fifth Fleet, were they more interested in using this electronic, as 

you were mentioning about—I think you called it the CAC card, 

that you are using in Nevada, were they more interested in improving on that? 

But, first of all, in regard to the IG report. 

Mr. BOEHMER. Absolutely. 

The installation voter assistance offices were determined and established before the 2012 election. I think the issue that the IG 

faced is they used outdated contact information on our Web site to 

try to reach out to the installation voter assistance offices. When 

we were made aware of outdated contact information, we quickly 

corrected that and then worked with the installation voter assistance offices on a weekly basis to make sure that that contact information stayed up to date. 


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As you are aware, in military environments, personnel change. 

There are deployments and transfers and new assignments. So 

keeping up-to-date contact information can be a challenge with 

military personnel. 

But we took that seriously; we addressed the problem quickly. 

And we are happy to see that, in the IG’s most recent report, they 

actually concurred with the services’ IG findings that all of the 

services’ voting assistance activities, including the installation 

voter assistance offices, were compliant. 

If I could take a moment, too—— 

The CHAIRMAN. Sure. 

Mr. BOEHMER [continuing]. I think it is important to realize that 

these installation voter assistance offices are just one of the many 

resources that our military members have at their disposal for information. 

So if I am a type of person that wants to receive information in 

person, I have that as a resource, but I also have my unit voting 

assistance officer, who really is in the front lines of voting assistance. If I am an 18-year-old military member and very comfortable 

going online for my voting assistance, I can use all the tools and 

resources that we have at fvap.gov. I mentioned our call center. We 

are able to send our servicemembers more than 18 million emails 

over the course of the election cycle reminding them of key dates. 

So the installation voting assistance offices are just one of the 

many resources—— 

The CHAIRMAN. Right. 

Mr. BOEHMER [continuing]. That our servicemembers have available to them. 

The CHAIRMAN. Particularly, as you say, when they are so mobile, you also mention about PSAs, and I thought, well, how are 

you getting a PSA to somebody who that is up in the mountains 

of Afghanistan? Unless you have—— 

Mr. BOEHMER. We actually use Armed Forces Network to do that 

for us. We had great success using—— 

The CHAIRMAN. Good. 

Mr. BOEHMER [continuing]. That station, particularly during the 

Super Bowl season, which we know that is of particular interest to 

military members. So those public service announcements have 

been very beneficial to us. 

The CHAIRMAN. Very good. Good. 

Secretary, again, what was your experience as you have actually 

talked eyeball-to-eyeball with the customers, if you will, the users 

of these systems? And what was their thought about having something there physically or being able to use electronically to a greater degree? 

Mr. MILLER. Thank you, Chairman Miller. 

The issue of installation voting assistance office outreach was a 

significant issue for this delegation because it had been the subject 

of recent scrutiny. And during our interaction with military personnel, there was a general lack of awareness of the presence of 

specific voter assistance offices at any given installation. 

But, notably, there was also specific feedback given to us that 

that wasn’t the most effective use of resources. You have to remember that many of the military men and women that are serving 


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over there are 18 to 24 years old; they are more accustomed to 

using technology. It is also the demographic that is least likely to 

become politically engaged. 

The feedback that we heard was that these voting installation offices weren’t convenient for them and it is not the means that they 

wanted to be outreached to. And so, again, their preference was to 

be able to register to vote online to the extent possible and for 

those ballots to be able to be transmitted to them electronically, 

along with being able to transmit it back to the local election offices 

electronically. 

And so, in our report, we suggested that if that program is to be 

continued that there be some examination as to the efficacy of 

maintaining brick-and-mortar installation offices at any facility. 

The CHAIRMAN. Well, I appreciate that. 

The chair recognizes the ranking member. 

Mr. BRADY. Thank you, Madam Chairman. 

I guess it must be tough because general elections are always the 

same date; primaries, State by State, are different, and the rules 

are different. And, you know, we have our men and women over 

there, you know, in harm’s way, and I am sure that they have a 

lot and their commanders have a lot more on their mind than who 

they are voting for or not voting for. But it still is their right. I 

mean, they are fighting for our rights, and I want to make sure 

and hope to make sure—I know that you have been. I was reading 

over your statements and what both of you are doing to make sure 

that we assure that right. 

How do we help you? Do we need to do something State by State, 

because every State is different? Do we need to do something uniformly to be able to make that easier? 

And we talked about electronic, maybe the Internet voting. I 

know there is a so-called pilot program that—I mean, it isn’t like 

they are living—or they are not in town that day or they are not 

feeling well or they are 60 years old. I mean, we know where they 

are at and we know what they are doing. And I just think that 

maybe there should be some kind of—I don’t like to use the word 

‘‘exception,’’ but there should be some type of something that we 

could do, you know, to make sure that they have that right and it 

is available for them. Whether they choose to use it or not, you 

know, that is another issue completely but not under our control, 

nor your control. 

You are right at the front lines with this here, State-wide and 

national, you know. Anything we can do to make sure that we can 

give them every ability, if it needs to be an ability? I mean, like 

you mentioned, they are all younger. They are not my age, that I 

have to learn a little bit and get my 7-year-old grandson to get me 

out when I am stuck with the—I have a good story to tell you, but 

that is for another day—but when I am stuck on the computer. 

But is there something we could do to make it more available 

and more easier and make it—because you hear the horror stories, 

you know, about that. 

I mean, either one of you, or both. 

Mr. MILLER. Thank you, Ranking Member Brady. 

One, I would note that you have helped significantly. Obviously, 

the passage of the MOVE Act was the biggest barrier—addressed 


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the biggest barrier that military and overseas voters faced, which 

was the timely delivery of the ballots. 

The delegation that I went on in the Middle East was the second 

such delegation of Secretaries of State. There was one in 2008, and 

that was their primary recommendation. What was it? The troops 

reported that even though they had requested ballots in a timely 

manner, they weren’t transmitted in a timely manner in order for 

them to get the ballots back to them. 

And so we have made significant enhancements. The recommendations that we have provided in the report, I personally believe, 

would be of great value and should be further explored. 

In 2008, the troops indicated, as they did during this delegation’s 

tour, that their preferred method of voting is through an electronic 

transmission of ballot delivery. We have made specific recommendations as to how that could happen. 

The other significant recommendation, I think, that is going to 

make it easier for members of the military and overseas voters to 

vote is, again, trying to look at ways where we could provide more 

individualized content to absentee voters about the rules and process that they need to follow in order to get their ballots in a timely 

manner. 

Again, I think the FVAP portal is outstanding. It provides wizard 

technology where, if you walk through, it will guide you State by 

State, help select your jurisdiction and your residency, and provide 

you with the timelines that are necessary and how you can request 

that ballot, how to register to vote, et cetera. 

But what we heard from troops is they are busy. Oftentimes, this 

isn’t the highest priority for them. The limited free time that they 

have, they want to be on Facebook, Skyping with their family. And 

this is still a cumbersome process. 

There are, obviously, agencies within the Federal Government 

that know the residencies of these troops. If we were able to share 

that information with State and local election officials, I can guarantee that, as big of a priority as it is for chief elections officers 

across this country, we would then be able to provide individualized content that was tailored for that individual so that they 

wouldn’t have to go through this cumbersome wizard tech process 

in order to figure out the rules and regulations. 

We could spell it out for them. Say, it looks like you live in Nevada, and in Nevada we have online voter registration. And if you 

go to this direct Web site, you can not only register to vote but you 

can request your ballot and ship it back to us immediately. 

If we offered that, I think it would remove one of the significant 

barriers there appear to be for military and overseas voters. 

Mr. BOEHMER. Sir, thank you. 

I also agree with Secretary Miller that you have already done a 

lot. We certainly have made great strides, and, as Secretary Miller 

said, we still have a lot more things that we can do. 

The issue that we are working on are two of the big issues that 

face our voters as they navigate through the absentee voting process, and that is the issue of time and then complexity. You know, 

each State, different rules. Our voters, you know, they have to be 

able to figure that out. 


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Secretary Miller mentioned, if we knew which jurisdiction our 

military members were actually voting in, we could actually target 

communications. And we all know, in the marketing world, if you 

are able to target your customer, you are able to deliver better information to them. 

The problem is the Department of Defense doesn’t have that information. So I agree, if we could find that information and bring 

that in, it would be a resource that not only the States could use 

but that the Department of Defense could use, as well. 

Elections are complex; they are certainly not impossible. And, as 

Secretary Miller said, our voters are young, they are inexperienced. 

They do want to use online technology. And we are lucky, with our 

grant program, to have been able to offer the States grants for online blank ballot delivery. And I think that, working with the 

States and seeing some of the results over the 5-year grant period, 

we should be able to make some really good recommendations. 

So thank you. 

Mr. BRADY. Thank you. 

So what I understand is probably education, communication, you 

know, and some information that they may be able to receive, that 

we can make it easier for them to know that—you know, as you 

said, and I can certainly imagine, voting for somebody is not the 

most priority that is on their mind when they have a minute or 2 

from not being out in the front lines out there. 

But to let them know, I guess—again, the problem is the Statewide—I mean, every State is a different timeframe. I may be sitting next to a friend of mine and he may have missed his timeframe and I may not. And, I mean, so I guess the information is, 

like, most important too. 

When a ballot is received and the proper ID or whatever, proper 

box is not checked off, that ballot just gets tossed away? There is 

no provisional? There is no timeframe where we can allow them to 

fix it or go back to it? If I submit an absentee ballot and I don’t 

have the proper ID and then somebody rules that—probably Statewide, I guess—rules that invalid, there is no provisional or anything? We have provisionals in the State of Pennsylvania. There is 

no provisional? 

Again, I hate to—if somebody goes through that process, and 

they go through and they vote at the right and proper time, or 

maybe they miss a day or 2 or don’t check a proper box, I would 

be a little disturbed knowing I am over here fighting for somebody, 

you know, protecting their rights, and they are not protecting my 

rights because I was a day or 2 late or I didn’t put on that my ID 

is who I am, it is written here. And, God forbid, if I come home 

disabled or not come home at all, they will know my ID then. 

What happens with that? I mean, is there anything we could do 

to provisionally help them? 

Because I get that. I get people that have been over in harm’s 

way and come back and said that they were denied to vote, for me 

specifically, because they didn’t check a box, you know. And whether they wanted to vote for me or not, I think we should make sure 

that that can happen for them. 

Mr. MILLER. Thank you, Ranking Member Brady. I think that is 

an issue that every State is exploring. And every State, obviously, 


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has different standards in terms of the procedures that must be followed in order for that ballot to be counted. 

In Nevada, we do have some rejection of the ballots. I discussed 

it in my testimony. Ninety-six percent of the ballots were, in fact, 

counted. Many of the ones that were not counted were not received 

in time. So they have to be received by Election Day in order to 

be counted. There were some instances of ballots that were not 

counted because they weren’t signed on the ballot where you require a signature in order to verify the identity of the voter that 

is attempting to cast ballots; and some for a handful of other reasons. 

You know, I think the issue could certainly be explored, to your 

point, about providing additional leeway or flexibility. Because 

members of the military and overseas voters often don’t have the 

time or the resources to be able to come in as a voter in State 

would be able to do and correct a ballot that may be cast provisionally. 

Mr. BRADY. Your absentee ballots in the State of Nevada have 

to be in on Election Day? 

Mr. MILLER. Yes. 

Mr. BRADY. What happens if they came in the next day or 2? I 

mean, and, again, they did it properly, they did it at the right time, 

they met the deadline when they had to sent it out. Through no 

fault of their own, again. 

If it comes, like—Election Days are Tuesdays—if it comes on 

Wednesday or Thursday, there is nothing you could do to be helpful 

for somebody that is overseas? Not somebody that is at another location and just didn’t feel like being home that day. 

Mr. MILLER. Ranking Member Brady, I will double-check the 

statute, but my recollection is it has to actually be received by Election Day in order to be counted. 

Mr. BRADY. Because in Pennsylvania our ballots, absentee ballots, come in days later, because they are collected at the polling 

place and they come in later or they are counted later or whatever. 

And I am not saying that Nevada should be different. I am just 

saying that, anything we could do to enhance it? If somebody does 

the right and proper things, and then the mail or whatever—maybe 

they didn’t pick up the mail on Tuesday, maybe they pick it up on 

Thursday, and they are 2 days late, I just think it is a shame to 

have them, the men and women over there fighting for us, not to 

be able to have their vote counted. 

But I appreciate both of you for coming, and I appreciate your 

participation in making this a better place for them. Thank you. 

Thank you, Madam Chair. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. I thank the gentleman. 

And the chair now recognizes the gentleman from Georgia, Dr. 

Gingrey. 

Mr. GINGREY. Madam Chairman, thank you. 

Representative Brady certainly had some very good questions. In 

my hometown of Marietta, Georgia, we just had mayoral and city 

council elections. And one of the city council members, who is a 

good friend of mine that I served on the school board with way 

back when I started into politics, lost by one vote. And she was an 

incumbent and had served on the school board and city council. 


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And they did a recount, and she still lost by one vote. So it is over. 

So, I mean, one vote counts. 

And when my good friend, Mr. Brady, Representative Brady, 

said, you know, especially these members of the military, they have 

a provisional ballot that doesn’t get counted, that that is not right. 

And their vote I won’t say is more important than anybody else’s 

vote, but, as he pointed out, they are at the tip of the spear. They 

give the rest of us the opportunity to have the right to vote. 

And I am just sitting here thinking, we marked up and passed 

H. Res. 77. Maybe in the competition one of these young people, 

with developing apps, can help you guys, can figure out—and that 

will be the prize winner. 

But, obviously, you are doing a great job, but, you know, there 

are things that need to be improved, as you have alleged and admitted to. And, certainly, we will continue to work on that. 

Well, let me ask a couple of questions. Secretary Miller, first I 

will ask you. Local jurisdictions may not be as familiar with the 

MOVE Act requirements, are less able to keep up with changing 

regulations, but are simultaneously tasked with running elections. 

Despite this, Secretaries of State are legally responsible for compliance with election law, causing some concern that their offices may 

be the target of a DOJ enforcement action. 

How can we better educate local jurisdictions about compliance? 

And what can State officials like yourself do both to better educate 

local jurisdictions like the cities and the counties and to protect 

themselves from costly legal disputes? 

Mr. MILLER. Thank you, Dr. Gingrey. Again, Secretary of State 

Ross Miller from Nevada. 

You know, that may have been a more significant issue when the 

MOVE Act was first implemented. Speaking only from my perspective in Nevada, the local election officials are acutely aware of 

those deadlines. They work very closely with our office to ensure 

that those ballots are timely transmitted in time for the 45-day 

deadline and are fully aware of the fact that, should we fail to meet 

that deadline, the DOJ would come in with a fairly significant 

hammer. 

We had one local jurisdiction in the 2010 election that had an 

issue with their printer, and they had some 30-some ballots that 

were not transmitted within that 45-day deadline. We worked aggressively to make sure that all of those voters did, in fact, receive 

their ballots and, I think, resolved the situation to the Department 

of Justice’s satisfaction. 

The issue that you pointed to, I think, is a good one, that on 

paper it seems like a good idea to hold the chief elections officer 

responsible for compliance with the MOVE Act, but the bottom line 

is that these local election officers don’t work for the Secretary of 

State, in most instances. And so, while we can work to encourage 

them to try to meet the deadline, there really isn’t much of a hammer. 

I don’t think that any of those local election offices, at least in 

Nevada, are deliberately ignoring those timelines. Sometimes we 

have court challenges, we have other issues that come up that prevent us from being able to timely transmit those ballots. But it is 

a high priority, and it is Federal law. And I think, at this point, 


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at least speaking from Nevada, we have done an outstanding job. 

We didn’t have any issues in 2012. 

Mr. GINGREY. Oh, your numbers are fantastic. 

Let me go to Director Boehmer. 

An April 2013 report by the Department of Defense Inspector 

General, IG, noted that FVAP had data on its activities but little 

data on the effects of those activities. The IG recommended that 

FVAP develop and track metrics of the effectiveness of its programs. 

What progress has been made on developing these metrics, and 

when do you expect them to be implemented? 

Mr. BOEHMER. Sir, thanks for the question. 

As you noted, the IG did make a recommendation for us to enhance our current metrics as well as develop new ones to show program effectiveness. 

As an assistance agency, we want to make sure that we are collecting the appropriate metrics and that FVAP is accountable 

under those metrics for the activities that we are actually responsible for. In order to help us with that, we actually engaged with 

a federally funded research and development center to take a look 

at what our responsibilities are and what are the appropriate 

metrics that would help with looking at effectiveness. 

We are currently right in the middle of that effort now. I am 

looking at seeing preliminary results from their work in the beginning of 2014, and we are hoping that we can have something to 

share with the Hill and your staff late spring. 

Mr. GINGREY. Madam Chairman, you have been very generous 

with the gavel. Can I go back to Secretary Miller for one last—— 

The CHAIRMAN. Sure. 

Mr. GINGREY. Thank you. 

Secretary Miller, you mentioned in your testimony that your office has taken advantage of legislation that will allow military and 

overseas voters to use electronic and digital signatures on election 

documents and to request, mark, and deliver a ballot to their county without the need of a printer or a scanner. 

Can you tell us more about the system you are working on to 

allow voters to mark and return ballots using this electronic signature method? And do you see, in particular, any security or voter 

integrity risk associated with the move in that direction? 

Mr. MILLER. Thank you again, Dr. Gingrey. 

You know, our report when we returned clearly noted, again, 

that the preferred method of voting was the electronic transmission 

of the ballot. And that was the same feedback that the 2008 delegation had received. 

One of the issues that we explored in some depth in order to get 

around some of those security concerns is that the members of the 

military use a Common Access Card. And that card is unique to 

each individual that is within the military. They cannot log on to 

their system, as I understand it, without the use of that card, 

which further requires a PIN number to be entered. And so there 

is a high level of authentication in terms of who is on the other end 

of that computer terminal. 

And so, when I returned from this delegation tour, we went the 

next legislative session and changed the statutes to allow for the 


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electronic transmission—not only the electronic transmission of the 

ballot, but for them to be able to fill out that ballot electronically 

and retransmit it to the local election officials using that Common 

Access Card. 

It is a process that the members of the military are very familiar 

with. Anytime they need to sign a document, they do so by attaching a digital signature through that system. In fact, as I understand it, they fill out their Federal tax forms using that same system, attaching that digital signature. The emails are encrypted. 

And so it clearly meets military standards for the safeguards that 

are in place. 

And so that is an issue that we explored, and we are, in fact, implementing it for the 2014 election. And so the way that all will 

work is, any member of the military or overseas voter would be 

able to register online to vote, because we are an online voter registration State. We will authenticate the identity of that voter by 

checking their driver’s license number, the last four of their Social 

Security number, and their date of birth, and register them to vote. 

Then, moving through the next part of that process, we would 

send them their individualized ballot according to their precinct. 

They would be able to fill that out. It would then generate a PDF, 

which is the exact same way that the ballots were previously transmitted, encrypt it, and send it to the local election official, where 

they could then further authenticate the identity of that ballot and, 

should any questions arise, obviously, take the appropriate recourse. 

Mr. GINGREY. All right. Thank you both very much. 

The CHAIRMAN. The chair now recognizes the gentleman from 

California, Mr. Vargas. 

Mr. VARGAS. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I appreciate 

it. 

I do want to follow some of the questions. First of all, thank you 

again for being here. Thank you for the work that you did. And I 

was happy to see that you are attempting to reduce the number of 

ballots that haven’t been counted. 

I do have to say that I am—I was in politics, and I left politics 

for a while, went back to private practice. And then I ran for the 

State Senate, and I won by a whopping 22 votes. However, at the 

end of the counting of the votes, I had only won by 12. What had 

happened was that there was a process that wasn’t followed in one 

of the counties whereby about 12,000 ballots were appropriately 

brought to the post office but the post office didn’t deliver them to 

the registrar of voters. So they just sat on the deck there of the 

post office, 12,000 of them, about 500 in my particular area, the 

way the thing was set up. 

And I had already won, I had already won by 12 votes, but my 

opponent went to court to say that those 12,000, and in particular 

those 500, should be counted. And I agreed with that. I agreed. I 

thought, you know, I had read a lot of the letters that had been 

sent. There were a number of military personnel who said, ‘‘That 

is not fair. I did what I was supposed to do. I voted. I took my ballot down to the post office on time. They forgot to deliver it to the 

registrar of voters.’’ 


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And so I didn’t challenge that. I thought, well, they are right, you 

know? If I lose, I lose. I mean, I have already won, but, you know, 

it is the right thing to do. I had lost in that county, so I thought 

I was going to lose. But, you know, I think it is the right thing to 

do, and God always helps out those who try to do the right thing. 

But, anyway, so I just thought, I will do it. Turns out, I got another 

10 votes out of it, so I won with a whopping—I almost doubled my 

victory. I always like to say I won by double digits. It was only 22 

votes. 

But I do think that if, you know, there is some technicality like 

that, especially service personnel and our military, that we ought 

to bend over backwards to make sure that those votes are counted. 

I don’t think that that is fair at all. Again, I have had that personal experience, and I just think you have to count those votes. 

You know, I have been to Afghanistan, too, also, to see how these 

poor guys and gals are out there defending our liberties, our freedoms. And for some technicality for their vote not to be counted, 

like that post office that, you know, the delivery guy just forget to 

take it to the registrar—they always had done it every year. The 

guy just forgot to do it, left it out there on the dock. 

If you could comment on that? 

Mr. MILLER. Thank you, Mr. Vargas. Again, Ross Miller, Secretary of State, for the record. 

I don’t know when this occurred. But what I can tell you, at least 

from the observations of the delegation, was that this is the highest 

priority for the military in order to be able to transmit these ballots. I think that the military clearly recognized, along with local 

and State election officials, that we had a problem and that, you 

know, many of these ballots that had been cast by our military and 

overseas voters weren’t transmitted in time. And so they worked 

very aggressively to address that and, I think, have done an outstanding job. 

In fact, the U.S. Central Command issued a regulation, Regulation 2564, that mandates that absentee ballots shall be afforded 

the most expeditious handling and transmission possible. As I stated, they commonly refer to this as the fact that ballots go before 

beans and bullets in the priority of transportation of assets, that 

they walked us through ad nauseam the process of the military 

postal system. I saw more about the postal system than I think I 

wanted to see in tour after tour. And pointed out that, with every 

ballot, the military postal system applies an express mail service, 

Label 11-DOD, to each ballot from an overseas servicemember. And 

so what that means is that that is the highest priority within the 

postal system, is getting those ballots back in time so that the local 

election offices can count those. 

I don’t think that was in place before the previous delegation 

tour and, clearly, in prior elections when we realized that we may 

have a problem with the timely delivery of ballots. But I think they 

have largely corrected it, or at least that is the hope. 

Mr. VARGAS. Okay. Great. 

And I look forward to that app. I think that is a good idea, Doctor, that these students come up with an app so we can have the 

technology. 

So thank you. 


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Thanks again, Madam Chair. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. We are going to start calling you 

‘‘Landslide Vargas’’ over there. But that is interesting, because the 

Senate districts in California are larger than the congressional districts, so to win by 22 votes even after that, that is—— 

Mr. BRADY. Double digits. 

The CHAIRMAN. Double digits. That is something. 

The chair now recognizes Representative Rokita from Indiana, 

former Secretary of State. 

Mr. ROKITA. I thank the chair. 

And I thank the witnesses for their testimony here today. 

Mr. Boehmer—is that how you pronounce it? 

Mr. BOEHMER. Yes. 

Mr. ROKITA. I appreciate your leadership over at what we lovingly call FVAP. And thank you for you and your whole team’s continued work. I haven’t had a chance to meet or work with staff 

members and leaders of any agency here, yet in Congress, that I 

think met the level of professionalism and sophistication and care 

for what their job was, than I did when I got to work as former 

Secretary of State with FVAP. So thank you. 

Secretary Miller, thank you for being here, as well. It is good to 

see you. You remind me of older and simpler times, but definitely 

good times. 

Very interested to learn a couple things from you. How many 

other States accept the Common Access Card method of doing 

things? Do you happen to know? I don’t mean to put you on the 

spot, but you are the NASS president, and with that paycheck 

comes extreme responsibility, sir, to know all these things. 

Mr. MILLER. Thank you, Congressman Rokita, for indeed putting 

me on the spot as the former NASS president. 

Mr. ROKITA. I would be interested to know. Yes. 

Mr. MILLER. And it is a pleasure to have a question from my 

former mentor, a fine mentor at the National Secretaries of State 

Association. 

I can’t give you the specific figures as to how many States employ the use of the Common Access Card. I don’t think many do. 

But there are a couple of States that will at least allow for the electronic transmission of the ballots back to the election offices. 

Notably, Montana has a system in place that is similar to Nevada’s. That is where we copied our legislation from, along with 

Washington. And my understanding is that both of those States 

have seen enormous success. They have seen higher participation 

rates among the members of the military as a result of that. 

I know that there are some vendors in the room today, in fact, 

that have this technology and have really worked to try to capitalize on marketing that towards other offices, should they want 

to take advantage of it. 

Mr. ROKITA. Thank you, Ross. 

Thinking back to our time together and remembering things I 

was concerned about—and this is new information to me, but I am 

very interested in it and intrigued by it—what are the distractions 

from this process? What would a hardliner like Rokita have 

thought, back when he was Secretary of State, about the Common 

Access Card and its vulnerabilities? Or would I have loved it? 


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61 

Mr. MILLER. Well, that is another difficult question, Congressman Rokita, as to what you would have thought of it. But I 

think—— 

Mr. ROKITA. It sounds great—— 

Mr. MILLER [continuing]. Some of the reservations that were 

pointed out in 2008, along with 2012, is that with what is commonly referred to as Internet voting, there would be all kinds of 

problems with security. And I think maybe many Secretaries of 

State across the country would acknowledge that. 

The use of the Common Access Card, I think, largely resolves a 

lot of the concerns that people may have with it, because you can 

definitively identify the other individual on the other end of the 

terminal. 

Mr. ROKITA. Yes. 

Mr. MILLER. Clearly, there may be some concerns about how appropriately the email is encrypted when it goes back to the election 

office so that it couldn’t be grabbed out there in cyberspace and in 

any way manipulated and have somebody—— 

Mr. ROKITA. You are dangerously walking close to another hearing, so—the subject matter of another hearing. 

Mr. MILLER. But, you know, this is a system that is in place in 

the military. It clearly meets their needs where they deal with 

issues of high-level national security, and so I think it should be 

explored. 

Clearly, in Nevada, we are comfortable with it. Our legislation, 

despite the fight we are a significant battleground State, it passed 

in an overwhelmingly bipartisan fashion when we walked through 

the security protocols with the transmission of the ballots. 

Mr. ROKITA. That is great to hear. Thank you for your leadership 

at NASS, too. 

By the way, I was able to weasel myself onto that first trip in 

2008, and it was an amazing trip. A lot of what you described in 

your report was similar to what we found, as your testimony indicates. 

The priority, as I remember it—and correct me if I am wrong— 

was that the ballots came only second to, unfortunately, bodies. It 

was bodies first, then ballots. That is what we were told, and that 

is what we saw, fortunately and unfortunately. 

Do you have any different recollection or different observation 

than that? 

Mr. MILLER. I don’t. That may very well be the case. I know 

through their regulation it says it is given the highest priority, but 

there may well be a legitimate and understandable exception 

for—— 

Mr. ROKITA. Absolutely. 

Mr. MILLER [continuing]. The transmission of bodies back to the 

U.S. 

Mr. ROKITA. Here is—and I would hope that the Chairman would 

just give me a little bit of time with the gavel here. 

The CHAIRMAN. Certainly. 

Mr. ROKITA. A question for both of you, and then I will be quiet. 

I don’t remember the answer to this or if there is an answer to 

this, but let’s assume there was a servicemember in Indiana, lived 

in Indiana his or her whole life. At the age of 18, enlisted. Trained, 


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62 

let’s say, in Georgia. Then may have, right before deployment, gone 

to Nevada, to one of your bases. Where is this person supposed to 

vote? 

Mr. MILLER. Thank you. I will take a stab at this, although it 

is not my area of expertise. And I think it may depend upon Federal law. But my understanding is that that voter can designate 

the residency of their choice. And so, if they wanted to, they could 

designate that their residency is in Nevada. 

By default, as I understand it, their residency is their last residence as of their deployment date. And this ties in to some of the 

complexities with local and State election offices being able to identify that voter’s residence so that we could send that individualized 

communication. 

But one of the things that I still do not understand, in terms of 

those barriers, is that somewhere in the Federal Government, you 

have to know where our troops live. Somebody knows. And if they 

have that information, why can’t they share it with FVAP and the 

local and State election offices so that we would be able to provide 

that communication so that they wouldn’t be left to guess as to 

which jurisdiction they live in and what those rules and procedures 

are. 

Mr. ROKITA. That is an excellent assignment, I think, perhaps, 

for us. So thank you for that. 

Matt. 

Mr. BOEHMER. Before I start answering your question, thank you 

very much for the compliment to the FVAP staff. I am honored to 

be in this position but more honored to work with a highly dedicated team of experts and professionals who do nothing but all day 

make sure that our military members, their families, and overseas 

citizens do have the voting assistance that they need and deserve. 

So thank you, sir, for that recognition. 

Where a military member votes is incredibly complex. And as we 

talk about one of the challenges even for a servicemember, him or 

herself, that could be a question that they ask. On our Web site, 

we do have some guidance to them. And it certainly can be their 

legal residence. For some who are young, it could be their home of 

record. As you know—— 

Mr. ROKITA. Do States determine this still, by and large? Or is 

there a Federal statute that—— 

Mr. BOEHMER. Actually, the military member would determine 

that. They can actually change their legal residence. 

So, as you can tell, because this is a very mobile population, 

changing addresses is something that is complex. And it is something that we try to help our military members and their families 

with, again, providing them with that information and awareness 

about what their legal State of residence could be and then asking 

them to work with their JAG officers, their legal counsel in their 

units to help them determine what that residence actually is. 

So we will give them some guidance and some advice, but it is 

almost that that bottom-line answer is: Consult your legal person 

in your unit; they should be able to help you figure this out. 

Mr. ROKITA. I thank the Chair for her indulgence. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much. 


tjames on DSK6SPTVN1PROD with HEARING
63 

And I certainly just want to thank—does the ranking member 

have any further questions? No? Okay. 

I just want to thank our witnesses again, both of you, for coming 

so very, very much. It has been, I think, a very good hearing. I 

know I have taken a couple of notes, talking to my staff here in 

the back, that we want to take a look at, in particular, this Military Postal Service. And, particularly, Mr. Vargas talking about all 

the mail left out on the tarmac there, so to speak, of the postal 

service, and what we can do to coordinate that better. That is a 

great suggestion, something we maybe can take a look at, as well. 

And I also have been, just as Mr. Rokita—I mean, I listened to 

this CAC card and thought, well, I don’t know how that would 

work, but yet it sounds like something that has worked, that your 

State legislature has agreed to in a bipartisan way. And so it is 

something that really, I think, merits looking into, as well, and is 

very interesting, as well. 

But I, again, just want to thank you all very much. And I hope 

you continue to look at this committee as a resource both for FVAP 

and NASS, as well. And I know you have the executive director of 

NASS that is in the audience here today, as well, who does a remarkable job, Leslie Reynolds. 

And this committee really wants to work very closely with the 

Secretaries and all of our customers, particularly those in the military, to make sure that we do everything that we possibly can to 

expedite their voting rights and assistance in however we can. We 

are always looking for input and suggestions, comments on how we 

can better that process, certainly. 

So thank you very much for your attendance today. Look forward 

to working with you. 

The committee now stands adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 12:50 p.m., the committee was adjourned.] 


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CANDICE $, MILLER. MICHIGAN 

CHAIRMAN 

GREGG HARPER, MISSISSIPPI 

PHIL GINGREY, GEORGIA 

AARON SCHOCK. IllINOIS 

TODD ROKITA, INDIANA 

RICH NUGENT, FLORIDA 

KELty CRAVEN, STAFF DIRECTOR 

Secretary Ross Miller 

(ongrtSs of tbt Ilnittb i-tattS 

"*t of i1tptdmtatibtf 

COMMITTEE ON HOUSE 

ADMINISTRATION 

1309 Longworth House Office Building 

Washington, D.C. 20515-6157 

(202) 225-8281 

http://cha.house.gov 

December 27,2013 

Secretary of State, Nevada 

Nevada State Capitol Building 

101 North Carson Street, Suite 3 

Carson City, NY 89701 

Dear Secretary Miller, 

ROBERT A. BRADY, PENNSYLVANIA 

RANKING MINORITY MEMBER 

ZOE LOFGREN, CALIFORNIA 

JUAN VARGAS, CALIFORNIA 

ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH 

CONGRESS 

KYLE ANDERSON, M!NORITY STAFF 

DIRECTOR 

Thank you for testifYing during the November 20, 2013, Committee on House Administration 

hearing on, "Military and Overseas Voting in 2012." The Committee requests you respond to 

additional questions that will be made part of the hearing record. Please provide your responses to the 

following questions to the Committee by Friday, January 17,2014. 

1. In your testimony you discussed a system Nevada is developing to facilitate electronic 

transfer of election documents between UOCA V A voters and election officials. 

Regarding that system: 

a. Please describe each function it will perform (e.g., voter registration, blank ballot 

delivery). 

b. Will the system utilize the CAC card? If so, how? 

c. You referred to electronic return of voted ballots through this system. How will 

this retum be performed? For example, will it consist of sending a PDF file of the 

voted ballot via email~ transmitting votes from the voter's computer to an election 

officiars computer, or something else? 

d. Will funds received from the Department of Defense (EASE II grants) be used in 

the development of this system? 

2. There have been a number of bills introduced this Congress that deal with military and 

overseas voters---Do you have an opinion on any of the bills? In particular, HR 2168, the 

Helping Heroes Vote Act of2013 and The Safeguarding Elections for our Nation's 

Troops through Reforms and Improvements Act (SENTRI Act) introduced in the Senate. 

3. What form ofID do military and overseas voters have to submit to get their absentee 

ballots? What happens to the ballot or request should the ID not be included? What 

steps are being taken to ensure that overseas voters are not disenfranchised? 
65 


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4. How does your state interact with overseas voters? Are there improvements that can be 

made to allow the process to run more effectively? 

5. Many overseas voters have complained about the lack of consistency of rules for 

overseas voters? Does it make sense to have a uniform set of rules for all voters living 

and working overseas? 

6. What is the level of assistance your state provides to overseas voters? How do you work 

in concert with other states to provide voting assistance to military voters? 

If you have any questions concerning this matter, please feel free to contact Yael Barash on the 

Committee staff at (202) 225-8281. Thank you again for your testimony, we look forward to hearing 

from you. 

Sincerely, 

?,~/.7J/~ Candice S. Miller 

Chairman 
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ROSSMILLER Secreklry ilf State 

NICOLE J. LAMBOLEY Chief Deputy Secretary a/State 

STATE OF NEVADA 

ROBERT E. WALSH Deputy Secretary 

jor Southern Nevada OFFICE OF THE 

SECRETARY OF STATE 

Committee on House Administration 

Candice S. Miller, Chairman 

1309 Longworth House Office Building 

Washington, D.C. 20515-6157 

Dear Chainnan Miller: 

January 17, 2014 

SCOTT W. ANDERSON Deputy Secretary 

for Commercial Recordings 

SCOTT F. GILLES Deputy Secretary for Elections 

RYANM.HIGH 

Deputy Secretary 

for Operations 

VIAE-MAIL 

Thank you for the opportunity to testifY before the Committee on House Administration 

regarding Military and Overseas Voting in 2012. The following are answers to the committee's 

additional questions: 

1. In your testimony you discussed a system Nevada is developing to facilitate electronic 

transfer of election documents between UOCAVA voters and election officials. Regarding that system: 

(a) Please describe each /unction it will perform (e.g., voter registration, blank ballot 

delivery). 

The online resource being is being developed as a one stop shop that will facilitate UOCAVA voters with 

every step of the process. The online resource will use information provided by the user to identify any 

of the voter's existing Nevada voter registration information, and it will prefill their voter registration, 

information updates, and absentee ballot request documents. UOCAVA voters will also be able to 

seamlessly access their ballot. 

Additionally, the online resource will provide a UOCAVA voter the ability to print out their blank ballot or 

mark it online. The user will then be provided with directions and information on how to return the 

ballot to their county clerk. UOCAVA voters will be able to sign their documents manually or by using a 

digital or electronic signature thanks to recently enacted enabling state legislation. Digital signatures 

may be used by military CAC card users and electronic signatures will be made accessible to users who 

are already registered to vote in Nevada or those who have a current driver's license or identification 

card issued by the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). 

NEVADASTATECA~OL 

101 N. Carson Street. SUffE3 

Carson City. Nevada 89701-4186 

Telephone: mS) 634-5708 

Fax: (715) 684-5725 

COMMERCIAL RECORDINGS 

MEYER'S ANNEX OFFICE 

202 N. Carson Street 

CarsonCi1y, Nevada 897014201 

Telephone: (775) 684-S7{)8 

Fax: (775) 684-5725 

LAS VEGAS OFFlCE 

55SE. WashingtonAvewe SI.e. 5200 

Las Vegas. Nevada 89101-1090 

SECURmES Telephone: (702) 486-2440 

Fax: (702) 486-2452 

CORPORATIONS 

Telephone: (702) 486-2880 

Fax; (702) 486-2888 

RENOOFFlCE 

SOO Damonle Rancb Pkwy, Suite 657-A 

Reno, Nevada 89S2l 

Tdephone: (775) 687-9950 

Fax: (775) 853-7961 
67 


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Committee on House Administration 

January 17, 2014 

Page 2 of4 

(b) Will the system utilize the CAC card? If sa, haw? 

The system will allow a CAC card user to prefill certain fields and sign their election documents with 

their CAC card digital signature. This functionality and the CAC card digital signature will also provide 

local election officials with an extra level of personal verification when processing election documents 

submitted from a CAC card user. 

(c) You referred to electronic return of voted ballots through this system. How will this 

return be performed? For example, will it consist of sending a PDF file of the voted ballot via email, 

transmitting votes from the voter's computer to an election official's computer, or something else? 

Nevada's system will facilitate the user's electronic return of their election documents by providing the 

user with a PDF containing a pre-filled return cover sheet and the election documents, including marked 

ballots. A user choosing to return their election documents electronically will need to manually email 

their PDF as an attachment to their county clerk. The system will also allow a user to print out their 

ballot and return it by mail or facsimile. 

(d) Will funds received from the Department of Defense (EASE II grants) be used in the 

development of this system? 

The development of Nevada's online resource is being developed with existing internal resources and 

contractors working internally that are being paid with funds received from the Department of Defense 

(EASE II Grant). 

2. There have been a number of bills introduced this Congress that deal with military and 

overseas voters-Do you have an opinion on any of the bills? In particular, HR 2168, the Helping 

Heroes Vote Act of 2013 and The Safeguarding Elections for our Nation's Troops through Reforms and 

Improvements Act (SENTRI Act) introduced in the Senate. 

Nevada would not have any significant issues implementing the requirements proposed in the abovereferenced bills. With the completion of Nevada's online system for UOCAVA voters described herein, 

Nevada will be prepared and Situated to provide the additional reporting and data required by the 

legislation and meet all the ballot request and delivery requirements of the legislation. The Secretary of 

State's office does not support any legislation that would extend to UOCAVA voters a private right of 

action against the state. 
68 


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Committee on House Administration 

January 17,2014 

Page 3 of4 

3. What form of ID do military and overseas voters have to submit to get their absentee 

ballots? What happens to the ballot or request should the ID not be included? What steps are being 

token to ensure that overseas voters are not disenfranchised? 

Nevada does not require registered military and overseas voters to submit identification with an 

absentee ballot request. Already registered voters simply need to submit a signed absentee ballot 

request to their county clerk. Unregistered voters can register by providing their Nevada DMV issued 

driver's license or identification card number or the last four digits of their social security number. 

4. How does your state interact with overseas voters? Are there improvements that can 

be made to allow the process to run more effectively? 

It is Nevada's county clerks who interact directly with UOCAVA voters on registration and ballot 

transmission issues. Improvements can be made to simplify and make more convenient the voting 

process for UOCAVA voters. As described above, the Secretary of State's office is developing an online 

resource for its UOCAVA voters to register, request a ballot, mark a ballot and return a ballot 

electronically. 

However, the biggest potential improvement would be increased ability to "push" registration and 

voting information to identified UOCAVA eligible voters. The "Military and Overseas Voters 2012: 

Observations & Recommendations by a Delegation of State Chief Elections Officers" report prepared by 

Secretaries Miller, Martin, Grimes, Schedler and Johnson (previously submitted to the Committee) 

identifies as its #2 recommendation the ability to "communicate jurisdiction-specific information to the 

voter in an individualized communication." The overwhelming challenge in presenting information to 

absentee voters in this manner is the fact that information about an individual voter's residence for 

purposes of determining their voting jurisdiction is not always readily available to local and state 

election officials. In fact, in some instances the issue is complicated even further by the fact that some 

citizens who are eligible to vote via absentee ballot may not know themselves in which U.S. jurisdiction 

they are eligible to vote. 

An additional barrier is that even though some federal agencies may collect or maintain data relating to 

residency, legal privacy barriers prevent sharing the data with election officials. However, to the extent 

that the DOD or the Department of State maintains information pertaining to the residency of these 

absentee voters, it should be further explored whether use of the residency data could be enhanced to 

better provide these voters with individualized information relating to how and when they can cast their 

ballots. 
69 


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Committee on House Administration 

January 17, 2014 

Page 40f4 

5. Many overseas vaters have complained about the lack of consistency of rules for 

overseas voters? Does it make sense to have a uniform set of rules for all voters living and working 

overseas? 

Yes. In this vain, Nevada's state legislature adopted UMOVA in its 2011 Legislative Session. Although, 

considerations need to be made with any federal legislation for states and local election jurisdictions 

that are situated differently and have different resource capabilities. 

6. What is the level of assistance your state provides to overseas voters? How do you 

work in concert with other states to provide voting assistance to military vaters? 

Nevada provides overseas voters with individualized support. Nevada election officials work with 

requests received from another state's voter and work with them to contact their appropriate 

jurisdiction. 

Should you have any follow-up questions to these answers, please do not hesitate to 

contact my office at (775) 684-5705. 

Respectfully, 

ROSSMILLER 

Secretary of State 

By: lsI Scott Gilles 

Scott F. Gilles 

Deputy of Elections 
70 


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CANDICE S. MILLER, MICHIGAN 

CHAIRMAN 

GREGG HARPER, MISSISSIPPI 

PHIL GINGREY, GEORGIA 

AARON SCHOCK, ILLINOIS 

TOOD ROKITA, INDIANA 

RICH NUGENT, FLORIDA 

KEltY CRAVEN, STAFF DIRECTOR 

Mr. Matt Boehm.er 

Acting Director 

(ougm, of tbt tlniteb .~ 

... ef~ 

COMMITTEE ON HOUSE 

ADMINISTRATION 

1309 Longworth House Office Building 

Washington, D.C. 20515-6157 

(202) 225-8281 

http://cha.house.gov 

December 27,2013 

Federal Voting Assistance Program 

4800 Mark Center Drive, 03J25-02 

Alexandria, VA 22350-5000 

Dear Mr. Boehm.er, 

ROSERT A BRADY, PENNSYLVANIA 

RANKING MINORITY MEMBER 

ZOE LOFGREN, CALIFORNIA 

JUAN VARGAS, CALIFORNIA 

ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH 

CONGRESS 

KYlE ANDERSON, MINORITY STAFF 

DIRECTOR 

Thank you for testifying during the November 20, 2013, Committee On House Administration 

hearing on, "Military and Overseas Voting in 2012." The Committee requests you respond to 

additional questions that will be made part of the hearing record. Please provide your responses to the 

following questions to the Committee by Friday, January 17, 2014. 

I. If a ballot is mailed to a service member who has moved, what is the process to ensure 

that the service member receives their ballot in a timely manner? Does this allow for 

enough time for the ballot to be sent back and counted? Are there non-legislative 

procedures that can be implemented to speed up the process? 

2. What is being done to fix the perceived and real problems from the 2012 general election 

for overseas voters? Can these fixes be implemented in time for the 2014 election cycle? 

3. How did the delivery system for sending electronic ballots overseas work in 2012? 

2013? Is there any grant money remaining from the pilot program? In these days of 

tighter budgets, should this continue to be a funding priority for Congress? Why or why 

not? 

4. Have the issues raised with the Federal Write-in Absentee Ballot (FW AB) been resolved? 

5. Do you have the statistics for the number of ballots sent out and the rate of return for 

2012? How does this compare with stateside absentee ballot requests? Is this an 

improvement over 2008? 

6. Other than fax and email-is FV AP working (on its own or in partnership with other 

entities) on new technology to transmit ballots securely to voters living overseas? 
71 


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7. An August 2012 DOD Inspector General report indicated that calls to many of the voter 

assistance offices on military bases went unanswered. Has this issue been resolved for 

2014? Are there enough voting assistance officers assigned? 

8. What form of ID do military and overseas voters have to submit to get their absentee 

ballot? Who assists overseas voters who are not near military installations? 

9. Did any states have problems implementing the rules under the MOVE Act for 2012? 

10. The Senate has proposed fixes and amendments to the MOVE act. The Safeguarding 

Elections for our Nation's Troops through Reforms and hnprovements Act (SENTRl 

Act) has a number of provisions. One would require express mail of ballots should a 

state fail to send out ballots after the mandated 45 days mark. Do you consider these 

provisions valuable and do they adequately address the underlying problems? 

11. We have heard a great deal about voters being able to use the internet to vote in elections. 

Can you briefly discuss the pilot program for sending ballots electronically? How are 

results being measured? 

If you have any questions concerning this matter, please feel free to contact Yael Barash on the 

Committee staff at (202) 225-8281. Thank you again for your testimony, we look forward to hearing 

from you. 

c~"j7J/dkJ Candice S. Miller 

Chairman 
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Question: #1 

Hearing Date: November 20, 2013 

Committee: HADMINC 

Member: Congresswoman Miller 

Witness: Mr. Boehmer 

Question: If a ballot is mailed to a service member who has moved, what is the process to ensure 

that the service member receives their ballot in a timely manner? Does this allow for enough 

time for the ballot to be sent back and counted? Are there non-legislative procedures that can be 

implemented to speed up the process? 

Answer: Currently, a ballot destined for Service members who have changed their address is 

redirected only after it travels from the election office to an overseas Military Postal Service 

(MPS) facility where it is relabeled with the new address and then re-routed to the voter or 

returned stateside. This additional transit time is considerable in a process where voters in 

distant locales have little time to spare, even in ideal circumstances. On the return side of the 

absentee voting process, FVAP encourages these voters to use the back-up Federal Write-In 

Absentee Ballot (FWAB). In addition, the Military Postal Service Agency (MPSA) establishes 

"Recommended Mailing Deadlines" based on geographic location so voters know when to use 

the FW AB if their state ballot has not arrived. The MPSA provided an overall average transit of 

voted ballots from the absentee voter to election offices of5.6 days in 2012, well below the 

UOCA V A required timeframe. 

In a coordinated effort with the Military Postal Service Agency (MPSA) and the Department of 

State, the United States Postal Service (USPS) is modernizing its mail delivery system this year 

to redirect undeliverable election materials to military and diplomatic addresses in the same 

manner as civilian mail. This will allow misaddressed time-sensitive ballots to be redirected at 

its first processing point stateside - rather travelling to an overseas processing center before a 

redirect or return to sender takes place. 

Additionally, FV AP is working with the Defense Manpower Data Center on two new initiatives 

to automate voting address updates and inform Service members to notify their election official 

each time a change of address is entered into the military benefits system. 

The updated USPS system, along with the automated address updates and 45 day electronic 

ballot transmission should allow enough time for ballots from most locations to be sent back and 

counted. 

Question: #2 

Question: What is being done to fix the perceived and real problems from the 2012 general 

election for overseas voters? Can these fixes be implemented in time for the 2014 election 

cycle? 
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Answer: As overseas citizens are an important voter group that is more difficult to reach than its 

military-UOCA VA counterparts, developing productive, mutually beneficial relationships is 

important. To this end, FV AP works very closely with the Department of State's (DOS) Service 

Voting Action Officer and Embassy and Consulate Voting Assistance Officers to ensure voting 

assistance is provided to overseas citizens. In 2012, FV AP conducted training workshops at 

embassies and consulates around the world and participated in DOS's Twitter town hall 

regarding absentee voting from abroad. FV AP also conducted several outreach activities 

specifically for overseas citizens, such as a video contest, blogger network and social media 

engagements. 

To further increase overseas citizens' awareness of the tools and resources available, FV AP is 

expanding these efforts for 2014 and will launch new initiatives, including the online deployment 

of a new overseas voting Public Service Announcement and distribution of targeted digital 

toolkits to advocacy groups and overseas companies with large numbers of U.S. citizen 

employees. 

Question: #3 

Question: How did the delivery system for sending electronic ballots overseas work in 2012? 

2013? Is there any grant money remaining from the pilot program? In these days of tighter 

budgets, should this continue to be a funding priority for Congress? Why or why not? 

Answer: A review of the preliminary 2012 post-election data report indicates promising 

prospects for future analysis of effectiveness. The review is provided in FVAP's 2012 PostElection Report to Congress; a more detailed overview of the data will be available in March 

2014. 

FVAP awarded research grant funds to 35 States and localities between October 2011 and June 

2012 totaling over $25 million. The Electronic Absentee Systems for Elections (EASE) research 

grants explored possible technological improvements; some grant recipients used the funds to 

develop blank ballot delivery systems. In 2013, FV AP awarded a second round of research 

grants totaling $10.5 million to 11 States and localities to further examine blank ballot delivery 

and the establishment of a single point of contact for the transmission of election materials to 

State election offices. 

Because grant-funded systems are developed individually and managed by each grant recipient, 

States are the best resource to how their respective systems work. However, grant recipients are 

required to submit data reports to explain FVAP following each Federal election in which a 

grant-funded tool or system is used over the five-year life of the grant. 

We believe that the grants are an important tool to find innovations. Currently, all grant funds 

have been awarded, and FV AP will receive and analyze data to make recommendations 

regarding the success of the efforts and whether the program should be extended. 
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Question: #4 

Question: Have the issues raised with the Federal Write-in Absentee Ballot (FWAB) been 

resolved? 

Answer: As discussed in FVAP's 2012 Post-Election Report to Congress, local election officials 

rejected FW ABs submitted from Uniformed Service voters at a higher rate versus those 

submitted by overseas citizens. In 2013, FVAP updated the backup ballot in an effort to clarify 

form use and requirements. FVAP conducted a series of usability assessments resulting in 

substantial improvements using many established best practices for election-related forms. 

FV AP recently entered into an agreement with the Council of State Govermnents in part to 

facilitate a greater understanding of the specific reasons military FW ABs are rejected at a higher 

rate. FV AP will digest and incorporate the findings into actionable guidance. 

As an interim action, FV AP created a FW AB factsheet for voters to address common issues 

leading to the rejection of the form. The factsheet and other educational materials are included 

in FVAP's 2014 election outreach efforts. 

Question: #5 

Question: Do you have the statistics for the number of ballots sent out and the rate of return for 

2012? How does this compare with stateside absentee ballot requests? Is this an improvement 

over 2008? 

Answer: Due to a substantial change in FV AP's survey methodology for its post-election survey 

oflocal election officials from 2008 to 2012, the best data comparing the number of ballots 

transmitted versus returned from 2008 to 2012 comes from the United States Election Assistance 

Commission (EAC). Based on the 2008 EAC published report, 989,208 ballots were transmitted 

to UOCA V A voters with 682,341 returned for counting, a 69 percent rate of return. In 2012, 

876,362 ballots were transmitted to UOCAVA voters with 578,706 yielding a 66 percent rate of 

return. We recommend referring to the EAC for the most comprehensive numbers regarding the 

rate of ballots transmitted and returned domestically. 

The rate of ballots transmitted in 2008 was likely inflated due to the existing federally mandated 

period of extended eligibility for UOCA V A voters who submitted an Federal Post Card 

Application. At that time, States were required to send ballots for a period of four years (two 

general elections) based on a single request. The MOVE Act amendments to UOCAVA in 2009 

narrowed this minimum period of eligibility which has likely reduced the total number of ballots 

automatically transmitted. 

FV AP plans to conduct a deeper comparative analysis of each State's election laws for absentee 

voters to determine where problem areas exist and the impact of various statutes in combination 

with military status. Until then, our best indicator for success and driver of improvement across 

election cycles is through an examination of voter participation based on direct surveys of 

military voters and ballot r~ection rates from local election officials. 
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Question: #6 

Question: Other than fax and email-is FVAP working (on its own or in partnership with other 

entities) on new technology to transmit ballots securely to voters living overseas? 

Answer: Other than FV AP's grant program, FV AP is not developing on its own or in 

partnership with other entities new technologies to transmit ballots. 

Question: #7 

Question: An August 2012 DOD Inspector General report indicated that calls too many of the 

voter assistance offices on military bases went unanswered. Has this issue been resolved for 

2014? Are there enough voting assistance officers assigned? 

Answer: In April 2013, the DoD Inspector General confinned the Service Inspectors General 

findings of compliance with the Service Voting Assistance program statutes and regulations to 

include IVA Office provisions. FVAP maintains the accuracy of the IV A Office contact 

infonnation through regular outreach with IVA Offices and does not anticipate any issues during 

the 2014 election cycle. 

IVA Offices are designated and managed by the Services. Because they are most familiar with 

their installations and the voting assistance needs of the people assigned at each, the Services are 

best-suited to detennine the number designated. FV AP will continue providing IV A Office 

guidance and training to the Services. 

With regard to Unit Voting Assistance Officers (UV AOs), current guidance states a UV AO 

should be assigned to any unit of25 or more pennanently assigned members, and an additional 

UV AO should be assigned for each additional 50 members above the 25-member base. Similar 

to the number ofIVA Offices designated, the Services are best-suited to detennine if the number 

ofUV AOs assigned is sufficient. 

Question: #8 

Question: What fonn ofID do military and overseas voters have to submit to get their absentee 

ballot? Who assists overseas voters who are not near military installations? 

Answer: Voter identification requirements are set by the States and most States with voter ID 

laws exempt UOCA V A voters from the requirement so they are not required to provide an ID to 

vote. 

Overseas voters can receive voting assistance at any U.S. embassy or consulate. There are many 

resources available in the Department of Defense's voting assistance toolbox. UOCA V A voters 

may use online tools available at FV AP.gov, contact 800-438-VOTE, email vote@fvap.gov, visit 

FVAP social media pages, and sign up to receive and respond to voting alerts. 
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Question: #9 

Question: Did any states have problems implementing the rules under the MOVE Act for 2012? 

Answer: FV AP's focus is on assistance; however, we are aware that the Department of Justice, 

who enforces UOCA V A, took action against seven States and territories for failing to comply 

with the 45-day requirement. 

Question: #10 

Question: The Senate has proposed fixes and amendments to the MOVE act. The Safeguarding 

Elections for our Nation's Troops through Reforms and hnprovements Act (SENTRI Act) has a 

number of provisions. One would require express mail of ballots should a state fail to send out 

ballots after the mandated 45 days mark. Do you consider these provisions valuable and do they 

adequately address the underlying problems? 

Answer: Constructive legislation that enhances current efforts to support overseas Service 

members and civilians to vote in federal elections is valuable. 

While there are specific technical edits we would recommend, the SENTRI Act does contain 

several provisions that are helpful to the Department in enhancing overseas Service member and 

civilian voting experience and may address some of the challenges we face. 

Furthermore, the Department is committed to complying with statutes currently in place, as well 

as continued development of innovations to facilitate our overseas Service members and civilian 

voters. We look forward to working with Congress in these efforts. 

Question: #11 

Question: We have heard a great deal about voters being able to use the internet to vote in 

elections. Can you briefly discuss the pilot program for sending ballots electronically? How are 

results being measured? 

Answer: The Department neither advocates for nor disagrees with internet voting. FV AP is 

awaiting standards to ensure the legislatively mandated electronic voting demonstration project 

would maintain the integrity of the elections process. 

FVAP's research grant program explores the electronic delivery of blank ballots. The terms and 

conditions of each research grant expressly prohibit the use of funds for the electronic return of 

marked ballots. Grant recipients are required to submit data reports to FV AP following each 

Federal election in which a grant-funded tool or system is used. FV AP reviews the returnedballot-method data to ensure systems are compliant with the terms ofthe grant. FVAP is 
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currently analyzing the 2012 data reports (year one of the grants program) and will provide an 

overview of its findings in March 2014.