Online program helps military families vote absentee

The Defense Department launched an Internet-based program Monday to help servicemembers and other Americans living overseas vote more easily in November's elections.

The new, online voting assistant at fvap.gov will make the registration and absentee ballot application process "quick, easy, seamless and intuitive," Bob Carey, federal voting assistance program director, said during an interview with The Pentagon Channel and American Forces Press Service.

Americans living abroad previously had to research a 290-page manual to figure out their state's requirements for absentee voting, including where and how to send in their applications, Carey said.

"One of the things we found from the 2008 elections was that voters found the process very complex, very laborious and not very intuitive," he said. "With this, a voter doesn't have to have a master's in election law to figure out the process."

The site asks prospective voters to identify themselves either as a military member or family member, or other citizen living outside the United States, then answer fewer than 10 questions, including voting residence and how a ballot should be sent to them, Carey said. The process takes between two and 10 minutes, he said.

The program automatically determines the voter's election jurisdiction, and the proper questions to ask to meet specific state and local registration and absentee ballot requirements. Once the questions are answered, the voter prints off a PDF form, signs it, and submits it by mail, fax or e-mail, depending on state requirements, Carey said.

The online assistant does not store the information after the form is complete, and the information is purged from the server, he said.

The program is expected to increase the number of ballots counted for servicemembers, who are known to vote at a higher rate than the general public, Carey said. In 2008, it is believed that roughly 5,000 servicemembers' ballots couldn't be counted because forms were inadequate, incomplete or mailed to the wrong jurisdiction, he said. An even bigger problem was that ballots didn't make it to voting officials in time to be counted, he said.

The online assistant was released as part of Armed Forces Voters Week and Overseas Citizens Voters Week, which runs June 28 through July 7. Americans living overseas - some 6 million voters - are encouraged to use the site to register for absentee ballots in July.

"If it's August, they're starting to push it," Carey said. "If it's September, they're going to have problems."