MARCH 2006 

U.S. ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION 

SURVEY REPORT FINDINGS

UNIFORMED AND OVERSEAS 

CITIZENS ABSENTEE VOTERS ACT 

(UOCAVA)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION

UNITED STATES ELECTION 

ASSISTANCE COMMISSION

U.S. Election Assistance Commission 

1225 New York Ave., NW – Suite 1100 

Washington, DC 20005 

1-866-747-1471 ~ Toll Free 

www.eac.gov 
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U.S. Election Assistance Commission 

UOCAVA Survey Report Findings March 2006

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Executive Summary 3 

Background 3 

Survey Methodology 4 

Survey Results 6 

Challenges Related to UOCAVA Reporting 6 

Moving Ahead and Next Steps for 2006 8 

UOCAVA Survey Results: November 2, 2004 Election 9 

Military and Overseas Absentee Ballot Survey 2004 11
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Executive Summary 

The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Voting Act (UOCAVA) of 1986 (42 USC 1973ff) 

protects the voting rights of members of the Uniformed Services (on active duty), members of 

the Merchant Marine and their eligible dependents, Commissioner Corps of the Public Health 

Service, Commissioned Corps of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and 

U.S. citizens residing outside the U.S. UOCAVA requires States/territories to allow these 

citizens to register and vote in elections for federal office using absentee procedures. 

The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002 mandates that for each regularly scheduled 

general election for Federal office, the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) shall collect 

comprehensive data from the states on all of the ballots sent and received by UOCAVA voters. 

In 2004, EAC developed a survey instrument and distributed it to the states to collect statistics on 

balloting by UOCAVA voters from the November 2, 2004 presidential election. During the 

lengthy process of collecting the data, it was determined that many states and local jurisdictions 

did not track the specific data required by HAVA, and stored the requested statistics in various 

formats, resulting in some gaps in the UOCAVA data collected by EAC. 

However, it should be noted that the information collected does provide valuable information 

about UOCAVA voters, and that EAC will continue working with states to improve efforts at the 

federal, state and local levels to collect more information for the 2006 general election. Such 

information will help facilitate the process of improving the transmission and receiving of ballots 

from UOCAVA voters, and to serve their special needs. 

Background 

The 1988 Executive Order 12642 names the Secretary of Defense as the Presidential designee for 

administering UOCAVA. Executive Branch departments and agencies with employees overseas 

provide voting assistance under guidance from the Presidential designee. The U.S. Postal 

Service and the Department of Defense Military Postal Service Agency facilitate the physical 

transmission of election materials between the voter and local election officials. The Department 

of Justice enforces UOCAVA protections through litigation. 

The Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA), section 703 (a), amended section 102 of 

UOCAVA by adding the following requirement: 
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“Not later than 90 days after the date of each regularly scheduled general election for 

Federal office, each State and unit of local government which administered the election 

shall (through the State, in the case of a unit of local government) submit a report to the 

Election Assistance Commission (established under the Help America Vote Act of 2002) 

on the combined number of absentee ballots transmitted to absent uniformed services 

voters and overseas voters for the election and the combined number of such ballots 

which were returned by such voters and cast in the election, and shall make such a report 

available to the general public”. 

HAVA section 703 (b) requires EAC to work with the EAC Board of Advisors and EAC 

Standards Board to develop a standardized format for the reports submitted by States and units of 

local government under UOCAVA Section 102, as revised. HAVA also requires EAC to make 

the format available to the States and local units of government submitting such reports. 

Section 702 of HAVA also requires each State to establish a single State office that is 

“responsible for providing information regarding voter registration procedures and absentee 

ballot procedures to be used by absent uniformed services voters and overseas voters with 

respect to elections for Federal office (including procedures relating to the use of the Federal 

write-in absentee ballot) to all absent uniformed services voters and overseas voters who wish to 

register to vote or vote in any jurisdiction in the State.” It further recommends that this State 

office be the organ responsible for carrying out the entire State’s responsibilities under 

UOCAVA. 

Survey Methodology 

EAC is assigned the task, through HAVA, of collecting comprehensive data on all of the ballots 

sent and received by uniformed and overseas citizen absentee voters. A variety of government 

agencies and non-profit organizations have collected information similar to that requested in 

EAC’s survey, however, this is the first time a Federal agency has been given the responsibility 

of collecting comprehensive data on all of the ballots sent and received by this group of 

American citizens. Similarly, this request by EAC is the first time that States have been asked to 

collect and tally the votes of this group of citizens, in this manner. 

Prior to the administration of the survey, drafts were sent to EAC’s Board of Advisors and 

Standards Board, and to several state HAVA administrators, for comment and review. In the 

early fall of 2004, states were notified that the UOCAVA survey would be forthcoming. On 

December 21, 2004, EAC transmitted, electronically, to Secretaries of State and State Election 

Directors in the fifty States, the District of Columbia and four U.S. jurisdictions, the UOCAVA 

survey (See Attachment 1). 
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Each State was instructed to provide the answers to the ten-question survey on an Excel 

spreadsheet which EAC provided. The States were further instructed to provide electronic (PDF) 

versions of the ten-question survey to each of their local election authorities. The States’ local 

election authorities were to complete the “fillable” PDF version of the survey and return it to the 

State. The State would then enter the data from the PDF survey forms that it received from each 

of its local election authorities into the master Excel spreadsheet. Each State was to complete 

and return, electronically, to EAC, its Excel spreadsheet by January 31, 2005. 

EAC designated an electronic mailbox to receive the States’ responses to the UOCAVA survey. 

By the January 31, 2005 closing date, only two States had returned their responses to EAC. EAC 

staff sent follow up e-mails to the non-responsive States. By June 10, 2005, a majority of States 

had submitted their responses to the survey. 

EAC staff in charge of monitoring and answering State inquiries and responses to the survey 

indicated that EAC received relatively few questions regarding the completion of the survey. 

Many States’ inquiries or questions related to difficulties they were having in collecting data 

from their local election authorities. Several States indicated that they had sent their responses to 

EAC’s UOCAVA survey to the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP).1 Still other States 

indicated that they did not track the number of domestic military ballots that were transmitted or 

returned, meaning the State was unable to identify the total number of military votes that had 

been transmitted or returned. 

The final format in which EAC received responses to the UOCAVA survey varied. As EAC 

instructed, many States completed the electronic Excel spreadsheet which listed all of the 

jurisdictions in that State and each jurisdiction’s response to each of the survey questions. 

However, a number of States submitted only the PDF “fillable” survey form that was intended to 

be completed exclusively by the jurisdiction. For these States, EAC was unable to determine if 

the State had received data from each of its jurisdictions. Finally, other States submitted 

spreadsheets that used types of software other than Excel. Some of these spreadsheets contained 

the necessary information related to each of the ten EAC UOCAVA survey questions, while 

others did not. 

 

1

 The U.S. Department of Defense administers the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee 

Voting Act and the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP). In November 2004, FVAP also 

administered a random survey to UOCAVA voters, officers, and elected local election 

authorities. 
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In the spring and summer of 2005, EAC staff provided the state-level UOCAVA survey data to a 

contractor to enter, analyze, and perform preliminary verification of the numbers. In December 

2005 and January 2006, EAC staff sent written correspondence to each Chief State Election 

Official and Election Director requesting verification of the UOCAVA survey numbers which 

the States had originally submitted. The written correspondence was followed by e-mails and 

phone calls to State election directors and administrators. EAC implemented this data-checking 

process to allow States an opportunity to verify and correct the numbers they had originally 

submitted and to prepare for the public release of these figures. 

Survey Results 

The attached chart summarizes the data which EAC is required by HAVA to report. However, it 

must be noted that the conclusions from the data in this report may be inflated, or deflated by a 

number of factors. States have varying interpretations and record-keeping requirements. In 

addition to a number of caveats to interpreting these figures, which will be elaborated on below, 

the reader should note the following: 

• Some States did not respond to the original HAVA-mandated survey or requests for 

additional information or confirmations. 

• Several States reported changes to the original numbers they had submitted (within 90 

days of the Federal election). It is unclear whether the change was based on new 

information, or whether the States had provided information that was previously 

incorrect. 

Some States do not record information in the manner in which it was requested in the UOCAVA 

survey. Some States only require record-keeping of the total number of absentee ballots sent and 

received—and cannot separate the UOCAVA ballots from the total number of absentee ballots 

because the information was not collected at the local level in that manner. Finally, States and 

local election authorities have varying ways in which they record the differences among ballots 

which has been sent, returned, and cast. 

Challenges Related to UOCAVA Reporting 

A review of the data collected and submitted by the States for the ten questions asked in the 

UOCAVA survey indicates large variations in the manner in which UOCAVA information is 

collected, tracked and reported. 
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With a few exceptions, most States reported that a majority of their local election authorities 

provided the requested information. However, many local election authorities did not track the 

precise number of ballots they mailed or transmitted to their domestic military, overseas military 

and overseas citizens, as required by HAVA. Both UOCAVA and HAVA anticipated that, 

because of the time it takes to transmit ballots overseas, a certain amount of necessary overlap 

may occur. Provisions in state laws could contribute to the states having difficulty in the 

tracking of ballots. The tracking of these transmitted absentee ballots is complicated by the 

following factors that may artificially inflate or deflate the numbers reported in this survey: 

• If UOCAVA voters do not receive their State ballots close to the date of the elections 

they can send a “Federal Write-In” ballot that indicates his or her preferences for known 

races. These ballots are not classified as “sent” from the State, and they may or may not 

be counted as UOCAVA ballots received in the data reported. 

• Additionally, if the UOCAVA voter submits his or her “Federal Write-In” ballot, and 

subsequently receives his or her full UOCAVA ballot from the State, the voter is allowed 

to vote the full ballot, and the State should count those full ballots. That is, the fact that 

several ballots might legitimately be received from one voter further complicates the 

accuracy of the data collected. We do not suggest that more than one ballot was counted 

for each UOCAVA voter, but that state record-keeping protocols might inflate the 

number of ballots received. 

• Finally, when a voter registers to vote using the Federal Post Card Application, an 

absentee ballot is automatically sent to that voter—for the next two federal elections. 

Voters may move or change addresses and ballots may be sent to addressees for voters 

who are no longer residing at that address. This fact could artificially inflate the number 

of UOCAVA absentee ballots which the State records as having been sent. 

To summarize, the various processes required by UOCAVA procedures vary substantially and 

will be considered when promoting further surveys and collecting data. The following State 

processes should be considered as EAC assesses future data collection efforts: 

• How States and local election authorities handle the sending and the return of ballots. 

This includes variations among States in scheduling elections (late or early primaries), 

polices and procedures regarding the use of faxes, rules regarding the time allowed to 

return ballots and early voting policies and procedures. 

• How States and their local election authorities handle ballots received from overseas 

military, domestic military on active or in-active duty, overseas citizens and Federal 

write-in absentee ballots. 
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• How States handle counting domestic and overseas military ballots, overseas citizen 

ballots, ballots cast early and all absentee and FWAB ballots cast and counted. 

• How States define and assess UOCAVA ballot responses through the single state 

UOCAVA offices, and how those offices communicate the record-keeping protocols with 

local election officials.

Moving Ahead and Next Steps for 2006 

The items described in the previous section are likely to cause fluctuation in the UOCAVA 

numbers reported by States. This report illustrates the need for EAC to provide election recordkeeping protocols for the States to consider. 

Efforts aimed at educating States and their local election authorities about HAVA requirements 

regarding UOCAVA is the first and most critical step. EAC will coordinate its efforts with the 

staff of the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) at the Department of Defense to ensure 

that both agencies work together in providing a service that is valuable to States and UOCAVA 

voters. 

While it is important to recognize the tremendous variation in how States and their local election 

authorities handle the mailing and processing of their ballots, it is equally important that EAC 

assist States and local election authorities to develop policies and procedures that will make them 

HAVA-compliant. 

Providing the UOCAVA survey instrument to States well in advance of the upcoming Federal 

election will assist States with their collection and reporting of UOCAVA survey data. As with 

the last UOCAVA survey, EAC staff will be available to answer and clarify specific questions 

States may have about completing the survey. 

In the early Spring of 2006, EAC will conduct a working group meeting of State and local 

elections officials and other experts to fine-tune the UOCAVA survey instrument. 

Representatives from the elections community along with various organizations that utilize 

UOCAVA survey data will have an opportunity to share with EAC their suggestions for 

improving the format and administration of the survey. EAC will also work with its Board of 

Advisors and Standards Board to gain input on revisions to the survey. 

EAC efforts to develop uniform measures for the collection and reporting of UOCAVA data will 

be a continuing process. These steps and measures will be shared with each State’s UOCAVA 

office and will be recommended for use when completing future EAC/UOCAVA surveys. It is 

anticipated that this type of information will assist States with their implementation of effective 

and efficient methods for sending and receiving ballots to UOCAVA voters. 
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UOCAVA SURVEY RESULTS 

November 2, 2004 Election

The interpretation of this chart and any conclusions regarding the results of this survey should 

be done with caution. As the footnote indicates, several states did not, at the time of the 

survey, divide their UOCAVA voters from the general group of absentee voters because of the 

manner in which local election authorities collected the data. Therefore, given this variation in 

the collecting and reporting of numbers, EAC did not provide totals for the number of 

UOCAVA absentee ballots sent or UOCAVA absentee ballots returned. 

State 

UOCAVA 

Absentee Ballots Sent* 

UOCAVA 

Absentee Ballots 

Returned* 

AK 14,574 9,839 

AL 8,005 4,234 

AR 5,173 2,539 

AZ 12,046 8,282 

CA 62,468 No data 

CO 10,339 6,669 

CT 6,045 4,489 

DC 2,532 1,722 

DE 1,811 1,273 

FL 122,194 93,524 

GA 16,690 13,216 

HI 3,862 2,492 

IA 5,343 4,920 

ID 4,275 3,874 

IL 30,556 26,639 

IN 8,980 6,811 

KS 6,564 5,084 

KY 6,234 4,912 

LA 12,899 8,631 

ME 3,410 2,649 

MD 12,916 11,306 

MA 125,031 111,017 

MI 13,583 9,916 

MN 12,322 8,757 

MS 2,779 1,683 
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State 

UOCAVA 

Absentee Ballots Sent* 

UOCAVA 

Absentee Ballots 

Returned* 

MO 15,477 9,006 

MT 4,721 3,490 

NE 3,867 2,775 

NV 5,699 4,420 

NH 4,516 3,727 

NJ 14,256 8,475 

NM 519 348 

NY 55,183 43,699 

NC 18,063 11,996 

ND 1,587 1,117 

OH 14,527 11,768 

OK 7,682 5,737 

OR 18,752 14,307 

PA 36,051 30,042 

RI 21,498 19,046 

SC 168,814 157,990 

SD 3,823 3,288 

TN 19,635 16,609 

TX 88,847 66,374 

UT 4,598 3,817 

VT 1,733 1,340 

VA 29,646 24,463 

WA 37,198 30,446 

WV 4,712 3,745 

WI 10,275 7,146 

WY 3,123 2,594 

AS 326 284 

GU No Response No Response 

PR No Response No Response 

VI No Response No Response 

*Some State numbers may reflect total absentee ballots sent and received. 

 (UOCAVA and Non-UOCAVA). 
 

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ATTACHMENT - 1 

UNITED STATES ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION 

Military and Overseas Absentee Ballot Survey 2004 

LOCAL JURISDICTION RESPONSE FORM

The following form is provided by EAC as a convenience to the States in gathering information 

from local election jurisdictions in preparation for responding to the Military and Overseas 

Absentee Ballot Survey for the November 2, 2004 election. 

Please complete all of the fields below. Specific instructions relative to certain questions are 

found at the end of this form. If your question or concern is not answered in the instructions 

section of this form, please contact (name of state contact person) at (telephone number of 

contact person) . Please return this form to (name of state contact person) at (address -

email or physical – or fax number to which the form should be returned) on or before 

(date) , 2005. 

CONTACT INFORMATION 

For each of the following questions please respond in the space provided, 

LOCAL ELECTION JURISDICTION: 

NAME: 

ADDRESS: 

TITLE: 

PHONE: 

EMAIL: 

DATE: 
 

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ABSENTEE BALLOTS 

Question 1. What was the total number of absentee ballots transmitted by your jurisdiction 

(including ballots transmitted by mail, fax, e-mail or courier) to (a) domestic military citizens, 

(b) overseas military citizens, and (c) overseas citizens (collectively, “military and overseas 

citizens”) for the November 2, 2004 general election? 

Question 2. What was the total number of advanced ballots transmitted by your jurisdiction to 

military and overseas citizens? 

Question 3. What was the total number of absentee ballots returned to your jurisdiction by (a) 

domestic military citizens, (b) absent military citizens, and (c) overseas citizens for the 

November 2, 2004 general election? (NOTE: Please do not include Federal Write-In Absentee 

Ballots as question 7 asks for information about these ballots.) 

Question 4. Of the total number of absentee ballots distributed to or returned by military and 

overseas citizens, how many were transmitted or returned by (a) mail, (b) facsimile, and (c) email? 

Question 5. Of the total number of absentee ballots returned by military and overseas citizens, 

how many were actually counted by your jurisdiction for the November 2, 2004 general 

election? 

Question 6. Of those military and overseas citizen absentee ballots not counted, provide the 

number of ballots rejected due to the fact that the ballot (a) lacked a postmark, (b) lacked the 

voter’s signature, (c) contained no verifiable signature, (d) had no date of signature, (e) had no 

notary or witness signature, (f) had no date of notary or witness signature, (g) was received after 

the state deadline, (h) was returned as undeliverable, or (i) was rejected for another reason. (Use 

“N/A” if not the category of rejection is not applicable to your jurisdiction) 

Please provide additional clarifying information for any ballots itemized under “other” for 

Question 6. 
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Question 7. How many Federal Write-In Absentee Ballots (FWAB) did your jurisdiction 

receive from absent uniformed services and overseas voters for the November 2, 2004 general 

election? 

Question 8. If data are missing, please explain any other reasons for missing data below. 

Instructions:

Please answer every question. Do not leave any questions blank. If your jurisdiction does not 

collect a specific piece of data requested or data is unavailable for some other reason, please 

signify by placing N/A in the blank and noting the reason that data was not provided. 

Definitions:

“Advance Ballots” means any Special Write-In Absentee Ballot, State Write-In Absentee 

Ballot, Special Write-In Early Ballot or Blank Absentee Ballot that is distributed by a state in 

advance of the publication of an official ballot for a federal election on which military and 

overseas citizens are allows to write in the name of the candidate in each contest for whom they 

choose to vote. 

“Domestic Military” encompasses 

(A) a member of a uniformed service on active duty who, by reason of such active duty, is 

stationed or positioned within the United States or its territories, and who is absent from the 

place of residence where the member is otherwise qualified to vote; 

(B) a member of the merchant marine who, by reason of service in the merchant marine, is 

serving within the United States and its territories, and who is absent from the place of residence 

where the member is otherwise qualified to vote; and 

(C) a spouse or dependent of a member referred to in subparagraph (A) or (B) who, by reason of 

the active duty or service of the member, is absent from the place of residence where the spouse 

or dependent is otherwise qualified to vote. 

“ Overseas Military” include: 

(A) a member of a uniformed service on active duty who, by reason of such active duty, is 

stationed or positioned outside of the United States and its territories, and who is thus absent 

from the place of residence where the member is otherwise qualified to vote; 
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(B) a member of the merchant marine who, by reason of service in the merchant marine, is 

serving outside of the United States and its territories, and who is thus absent from the place of 

residence where the member is otherwise qualified to vote; and 

(C) a spouse or dependent of a member referred to in subparagraph (A) or (B) who, by reason of 

the active duty or service of the member, is absent from the place of residence where the spouse 

or dependent is otherwise qualified to vote. 

“Overseas Citizens” are persons who are citizens of the United States who are living, working 

or stationed outside of the United States and its territories and who are not members of a 

uniformed service. 

“Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot (FWAB)” is a ballot available to a military or overseas 

citizen when the absent uniformed services member or citizen outside the United States 

(including APO and FPO addresses) does not receive the regular absentee ballot from the state 

after having made a timely application for the ballot. The FWAB is used to vote for Federal 

offices (President/Vice President, U.S. Senator, U.S. Representative, Delegate or Resident 

Commissioner) in general elections. 

A Federal write-in absentee ballot of an absent uniformed services voter or overseas voter shall 

not be counted. — 

(1) in the case of a ballot submitted by an overseas voter who is not an absent uniformed 

services voter, if the ballot is submitted from any location in the United States; 

(2) if the application of the absent uniformed services voters or overseas voter for a State 

absentee ballot is received by the appropriate State election official after the latter of— 

(A) the deadline of the State for receipt of such application; or 

(B) the date that is 30 days before the general election; or 

(3) if a State absentee ballot of an absent uniformed services voters or overseas voter is 

received by the appropriate State election official not later than the deadline for receipt of 

the State absentee ballot under State law.