I
107TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 1377
To ensure that military personnel do not lose the right to cast votes in
elections in their domicile as a result of their service away from the
domicile, to amend the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting
Act to extend the voter registration and absentee ballot protections for
absent uniformed services personnel under such Act to State and local
elections, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL 3, 2001
Mr. THORNBERRY (for himself, Mr. CUNNINGHAM, Mr. SAM JOHNSON of
Texas, and Mrs. TAUSCHER) introduced the following bill; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on House Administration, and in addition to the
Committees on Veterans’ Affairs, the Judiciary, and Armed Services, for
a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for
consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the com-
mittee concerned
A BILL
To ensure that military personnel do not lose the right to
cast votes in elections in their domicile as a result of
their service away from the domicile, to amend the Uni-
formed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act to
extend the voter registration and absentee ballot protec-
tions for absent uniformed services personnel under such
Act to State and local elections, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Military Overseas
Voter Empowerment Act of 2001’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds as follows:
(1) National defense is a core responsibility of
the Federal Government, which has the sole author-
ity to raise and maintain the military, and the Fed-
eral Government has a special responsibility to en-
sure the voting rights of military members and their
families are adequately protected.
(2) Over 2,700,000 members of the military
and their families are stationed away from their
home of record at any given time.
(3) The disenfranchisement of military voters
has been acknowledged since 1952, when the Sub-
committee on Elections of the Committee on House
Administration of the House of Representatives con-
ducted hearings on the likely disenfranchisement of
military personnel then fighting in the Korean War,
and President Truman recommended the enactment
of temporary legislation by Congress since it ‘‘should
be possible to make all the necessary changes in
State laws before the congressional elections of
1954.’’
(4) The most recent controversy over uncounted
military absentee ballots has again shown that the
votes of many military members and their families
have not been counted because of confusing State
and local procedures, cumbersome ballot request and
submission requirements, and complicated proce-
dures and ballots.
(5) Some States do not recognize the rights of
military voters and their families to vote in their
domicile of origin, further disenfranchising these vot-
ers and their families.
(6) Therefore, Federal legislation is needed to
protect the voting rights of military personnel who
serve in defense of our Nation.
SEC. 3. GUARANTEE OF RESIDENCY FOR MILITARY PER-
SONNEL.
Article VII of the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Civil Relief
Act of 1940 (50 U.S.C. 700 et seq.) is amended by adding
at the end the following:
‘‘SEC. 704. (a) For purposes of voting for an office
of the United States or of a State, a person who is absent
from a State in compliance with military or naval orders
shall not, solely by reason of that absence—
‘‘(1) be deemed to have lost a residence or
domicile in that State, without regard to whether or
not the person intends to return to that State;
‘‘(2) be deemed to have acquired a residence or
domicile in any other State; or
‘‘(3) be deemed to have become resident in or
a resident of any other State.
‘‘(b) In this section, the term ‘State’ includes a terri-
tory or possession of the United States, a political subdivi-
sion of a State, territory, or possession, and the District
of Columbia.’’.
SEC. 4. EXTENSION OF REGISTRATION AND BALLOTING
RIGHTS FOR ABSENT UNIFORMED SERVICES
VOTERS TO STATE AND LOCAL ELECTIONS.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 102 of the Uniformed and
Overseas Absentee Voting Act (42 U.S.C. 1973ff–1) is
amended—
(1) by inserting ‘‘(a) ELECTIONS FOR FEDERAL
OFFICES.—’’ before ‘‘Each State shall—’’; and
(2) by adding at the end the following:
‘‘(b) ELECTIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL OFFICES.—
Each State shall—
‘‘(1) permit absent uniformed services voters to
use absentee registration procedures and to vote by
absentee ballot in general, special, primary, and run-
off elections for State and local offices; and
‘‘(2) accept and process, with respect to any
election described in paragraph (1), any otherwise
valid voter registration application from an absent
uniformed services voter if the application is received
by the appropriate State election official not less
than 30 days before the election.’’.
(b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—The heading for
title I of such Act is amended by striking ‘‘FOR FED-
ERAL OFFICE’’.
SEC. 5. TREATMENT OF APPLICATIONS AND ABSENTEE
BALLOTS 
SUBMITTED 
BY 
ABSENT 
UNI-
FORMED SERVICES VOTERS.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 102 of the Uniformed and
Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (42 U.S.C. 1073ff–
1), as amended by section 4(a), is further amended by
adding at the end the following new subsections:
‘‘(c) MANDATORY
MINIMUM
PERIOD
BETWEEN
AVAILABILITY OF ABSENTEE BALLOT AND DEADLINE
FOR SUBMISSION FOR ABSENT UNIFORMED SERVICES
VOTERS.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a
State may not refuse to count a ballot submitted in an
election for Federal, State, or local office by an absent
uniformed services voter on the grounds that the ballot
was not submitted in a timely manner if the ballot was
submitted not later than 30 days after the date on which
the ballot was made available by the State.
‘‘(d) STANDARD
FOR INVALIDATION
OF BALLOTS
SUBMITTED
BY ABSENT UNIFORMED SERVICES VOT-
ERS.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—A State may not refuse to
count a ballot submitted in an election for Federal
office by an absent uniformed services voter on the
grounds that the ballot was improperly or fraudu-
lently cast unless the State finds clear and con-
vincing evidence of fraud in the preparation or cast-
ing of the ballot by the voter. For purposes of the
previous sentence, the lack of a witness signature,
address, postmark, or other identifying information
may not be considered clear and convincing evidence
of fraud (absent any other information or evidence).
‘‘(2) NO EFFECT ON FILING DEADLINES UNDER
STATE
LAW.—Nothing in this subsection may be
construed to affect the application to ballots sub-
mitted by absent uniformed services voters of any
ballot submission deadline applicable under State
law (taking into account the requirements of sub-
section (c)).
‘‘(e) PROHIBITING REFUSAL OF APPLICATIONS ON
GROUNDS
OF EARLY SUBMISSION.—A State may not
refuse to accept or process, with respect to any general,
special, primary, or runoff election for Federal office, any
otherwise valid voter registration application or absentee
ballot application from an absent uniformed services voter
during a year on the grounds that the voter submitted the
application before the first date on which the State other-
wise accepts or processes such applications from absentee
voters during the year.’’.
(b) USE OF SINGLE APPLICATION FOR ABSENTEE
BALLOTS
FOR
ALL
FEDERAL
ELECTIONS.—Section
102(a) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 1973ff–1(a)), as amended
by section 4(a), is amended—
(1) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end of paragraph
(2);
(2) by redesignating paragraph (3) as para-
graph (4); and
(3) by inserting after paragraph (2) the fol-
lowing new paragraph:
‘‘(3) accept and process, with respect to all gen-
eral, special, primary, and runoff elections for Fed-
eral office occurring during a year, any otherwise
valid absentee ballot application from an absent uni-
formed services voter or overseas voter, if a single
application for all such elections is received by the
appropriate State election official not less than 30
days before the first election for Federal office oc-
curring during the year; and’’.
(c) RECOMMENDATION REGARDING EXTENSION OF
PERIOD BETWEEN AVAILABILITY OF ABSENTEE BALLOT
AND DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION.—Section 104 of such
Act (42 U.S.C. 1973ff–3) is amended—
(1) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end of paragraph
(8);
(2) by striking the period at the end of para-
graph (9) and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and
(3) by adding at the end the following new
paragraph:
‘‘(10) find that any ballot submitted in an elec-
tion for Federal, State, or local office by an absent
uniformed services voter was submitted in a timely
manner if the ballot was submitted not later than 45
days after the date on which the ballot was made
available by the State.’’.
SEC. 6. GRANTING PROTECTIONS GIVEN TO ABSENT UNI-
FORMED SERVICES VOTERS TO RECENTLY
SEPARATED UNIFORMED SERVICES VOTERS.
The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Vot-
ing Act (42 U.S.C. 1973ff et seq.) is amended by inserting
after section 104 the following new section:
‘‘SEC. 104A. COVERAGE OF RECENTLY SEPARATED UNI-
FORMED SERVICES VOTERS.
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—For purposes of this Act, an in-
dividual who is a separated uniformed services voter (or
the spouse or dependent of such an individual) shall be
treated in the same manner as an absent uniformed serv-
ices voter with respect to any election occurring during
the 60-day period which begins on the date the individual
becomes a separated uniformed services voter.
‘‘(b) SEPARATED UNIFORMED SERVICES VOTER DE-
FINED.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—In this section, the term
‘separated uniformed services voter’ means an indi-
vidual who—
‘‘(A) is separated from the uniformed serv-
ices;
‘‘(B) was a uniformed services voter imme-
diately prior to separation;
‘‘(C) presents to an appropriate election of-
ficial Department of Defense Form 214 show-
ing that the individual meets the requirements
of subparagraphs (A) and (B) (or any other of-
ficial proof of meeting such requirements); and
‘‘(D) is otherwise qualified to vote with re-
spect to the election involved.
‘‘(2) UNIFORMED SERVICES VOTER.—In para-
graph (1), the term ‘uniformed services voter’
means—
‘‘(A) a member of a uniformed service on
active duty; or
‘‘(B) a member of the merchant marine.’’.
SEC. 7. ELECTRONIC VOTING DEMONSTRATION PROJECT.
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Defense shall
carry out a demonstration project under which absent uni-
formed services voters shall be permitted to cast ballots
in the regularly scheduled general election for Federal of-
fice for November 2002 through an electronic voting sys-
tem.
(b) COORDINATION WITH STATE ELECTION OFFI-
CIALS.—To the greatest extent practicable, the Secretary
shall carry out the demonstration project under this sec-
tion through cooperative agreements with State election
officials.
(c) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—Not later than June 1,
2003, the Secretary shall submit a report to Congress ana-
lyzing the demonstration project conducted under this sec-
tion, and shall include in the report any recommendations
the Secretary considers appropriate for continuing the
project on an expanded basis during the next regularly
scheduled general election for Federal office.
SEC. 8. ABSENT UNIFORMED SERVICES VOTER DEFINED.
In this Act, the term ‘‘absent uniformed services
voter’’ has the meaning given such term in section 107(1)
of the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting
Act (42 U.S.C. 1973ff–6(1)).
SEC. 9. EFFECTIVE DATE.
This Act and the amendments made by this Act shall
apply with respect to ballots submitted for elections occur-
ring after the date of the enactment of this Act.
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