The narrow margin of victory in the 2000 presidential election raised concerns about the extent to which members of the military, their dependents, and U.S. citizens living abroad were able to vote via absentee ballot. The elections process within the United States is primarily the responsibility of the individual states and their election jurisdictions. States have considerable discretion in how they organize the elections process and this is reflected in the diversity of processes and deadlines that states have for voter registration and absentee voting, including diversity in the processes and deadlines that apply to military and overseas voters. Even when imposing requirements on the states in the Help America Vote Act of 2002, such as statewide voter registration systems and provisional voting, Congress left states discretion in how to implement those requirements and did not require uniformity. Executive Order 12642, dated June 8, 1988, designated the Secretary of Defense or his designee as responsible for carrying out the federal functions under UOCAVA. UOCAVA requires the presidential designee to (1) compile and distribute information on state absentee voting procedures, (2) design absentee registration and voting materials, (3) work with state and local election officials in carrying out the act, and (4) report to Congress and the President after each presidential election on the effectiveness of the program’s activities, including a statistical analysis on UOCAVA voter participation. DOD Directive 1000.4, dated April 14, 2004, is DOD’s implementing guidance for the federal voting assistance program, and it assigned the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness (USD P&R) the responsibility for administering the program. The FVAP office, under the direction of the USD P&R, manages the program. For 2004, FVAP had a full-time staff of 13 and a fiscal year budget of approximately $6 million. FVAP’s mission is to (1) inform and educate U.S. citizens worldwide of their right to vote, (2) foster voting participation, and (3) protect the integrity of, and enhance, the electoral process at the federal, state, and local levels. DOD Directive 1000.4 also sets forth DOD and service roles and responsibilities in providing voting education and assistance. In accordance with the directive, FVAP relies heavily upon the military services and DOS for distribution of absentee voting materials to individual UOCAVA citizens. According to the DOD directive, each military service is to appoint a senior service voting representative, assisted by a service voting action officer, to oversee the implementation of the service’s voting assistance program. Also, the military services are to designate trained VAOs at every level of command to carry out voting education and assistance responsibilities to servicemembers and their eligible dependents. One VAO on each military installation should be assigned to coordinate voting efforts conducted by VAOs in subordinate units and tenant commands. Where possible, installation VAOs should be of the rank GS-12 civilian or higher, or pay grade O-4 officers or higher. In accordance with the DOD directive, commanders designate persons to serve as VAOs. Serving as a VAO is a collateral duty, to be performed along with the servicemember’s other duties. Similarly, DOS, through its Bureau of Consular Affairs, embassies and consulates, carries out its voter assistance responsibilities by designating VAOs to provide assistance. The Foreign Affairs Manual contains absentee voting guidance for embassy and consulate VAOs, who also provide voting assistance as a collateral duty. FVAP updates the Voting Action Plan—its primary voting guidance to DOD components and other agencies—every 2 years. The Voting Action Plan provides detailed guidance on implementing the federal functions of UOCAVA and DOD Directive 1000.4. It also tasks FVAP, DOD components, and all other participating federal agencies with specific responsibilities and provides a timeline for carrying out their roles. FVAP updated the plan for 2004–05; however, it was never approved by the Secretary of Defense, and it remained in draft form for the 2004 presidential election. FVAP and the services referred to the draft Voting Action Plan in implementing their voting assistance efforts for the 2004 election. To assist voters in the absentee voting process, FVAP also updates its Voting Assistance Guide every 2 years. The guide includes state-by-state instructions and timelines for completing the various voting forms and it also lists addresses for local election offices within each state. For the 2004 presidential election, FVAP expanded its efforts beyond those taken in the 2000 election by providing military personnel and overseas citizens with more tools and information needed to vote by absentee ballot. First, FVAP distributed more voting materials, and improved its Web site to enable greater access for participants. Second, FVAP increased absentee voting training opportunities by providing more workshops and an online training course for the 2004 election. Third, FVAP developed an electronic version of the Federal Write-in Absentee Ballot, which is accepted by all states and U.S. territories. In its 2005 report to the Congress and the President on the effectiveness of its federal voting assistance program, on the basis of its postelection surveys, FVAP attributed higher 2004 voter participation rates to the effective implementation of its voter outreach program. However, because of low survey response rates, GAO has concerns about FVAP’s ability to project changes in voter participation rates between the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. For the 2000 election, we reported that voting materials, such as the Federal Post Card Application (FPCA)—the registration and absentee ballot request form for UOCAVA citizens—were not always available when needed. We were told by representatives from DOD and DOS that they had enough 2004 election materials for their potential absentee voters. Each service reported meeting the DOD requirement of 100 percent in-hand delivery of FPCAs to each servicemember by January 15. DOS also targeted 100 percent in-hand delivery of FPCAs to citizens employed with the embassies and consulates. According to DOS, FVAP initially provided DOS with the quantity of Voting Assistance Guides requested, however, because of high voter interest, additional copies were needed and obtained from the military services. After the 2000 presidential election, FVAP took steps to make its Web site more accessible to UOCAVA citizens worldwide by changing security parameters surrounding the site. According to FVAP, prior to the 2004 election, its Web site was within the existing DOD “.mil” domain, which includes built-in security firewalls. Some overseas Internet service providers were consequently blocked from accessing this site because hackers were attempting to get into the DOD system. As a result, FVAP moved the site out of the DOD “.mil” domain to a less secure domain. In September 2004, FVAP issued a news release announcing this change and provided a list of Web site addresses that would allow access to the site. Nonetheless, representatives of overseas citizens’ organizations continued to report that some citizens were not able to access the site. FVAP acknowledged that the site was not accessible at times prior to the 2004 election, but said that this problem was limited to relatively small geographic areas and occurred because some networks employed independent protection mechanisms that prevented communication with FVAP’s system. Representatives from overseas citizens groups acknowledged that obtaining access to FVAP’s Web site was sometimes difficult, but this was caused by the Internet service provider and not by FVAP. They stated that they were able to get to FVAP’s Web site through other Web sites, such as Democrats and Republicans Abroad. FVAP also added more election-related links to its Web site to assist UOCAVA citizens in the voting process. The Web site (which FVAP considers one of its primary vehicles for disseminating voting information and materials) provides downloadable voting forms and links to all of FVAP’s informational materials, such as the Voting Assistance Guide, Web sites of federal elected officials, state election sites, and U.S. overseas citizens’ organizations. It also contains contact information for FVAP and the military departments’ voting assistance programs. The representatives from overseas citizens’ organizations felt that FVAP’s Web site provided useful and valuable information concerning absentee voting. Although FVAP provided more resources to UOCAVA citizens concerning absentee voting, it is ultimately the responsibility of the voter to be aware of and understand these resources, and to take the actions needed to participate in the absentee voting process. For the 2004 election, FVAP increased the number of VAO training workshops it conducted to 164. The workshops were conducted at U.S. embassies and military installations around the world, including installations where units were preparing to deploy. In contrast, only 62 training workshops were conducted for the 2000 election. FVAP conducts workshops during years of federal elections to train military and civilian VAOs in providing voting assistance. In March 2004, FVAP added an online training course to its Web site as an alternative to its in-person voting workshops. Military VAOs can take the military version and DOS civilian VAOs can take the civilian version of the online course, and both are available on CD-ROM. According to FVAP, completion of the workshop or the online course meets a DOD requirement that VAOs receive training every 2 years. Installation VAOs are responsible for monitoring completion of training. The training gives VAOs instructions for completing voting forms, discusses their responsibilities, and informs them about the resources available to conduct a successful voting assistance program. On October 21, 2004, just a few weeks prior to the election, FVAP issued a news release announcing an online version of the Federal Write-in Absentee Ballot, an emergency ballot accepted by all states and territories.