EAC report on UOCAVA
GCN reports: Election officials need to do a better job of educating overseas citizens of their rights to vote in federal elections and improve the delivery of ballots to those voters, the Election Assistance Commission concluded after reviewing results of overseas voting in last year’s elections.
According to a Government Accountability Office report cited by the EAC, there are about 6 million overseas citizens and uniformed service members and their family either abroad or away from home domestically and eligible to vote. But state and local election officials reported that only about 992,000 absentee ballots were requested by this group in 2006, and only slightly more than 330,000 of these were cast or counted.
The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Voting Act ensures that citizens away from home can register to vote and receive ballots in U.S. elections. EAC is required under the Help America Vote Act to report to Congress on performance of UOCVA. The 2006 report was released Monday.
The most common reason for requested ballots not being cast, 70 percent, was that mailed ballots were returned as undeliverable. -- EAC issues report on U.S. overseas voting for 2006
The EAC report is here.