Minnesota Voters Can Now Register Online

Yesterday, the Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State announced voters can now register to vote (or update their information) online and that military and overseas voters will be able to apply online for an absentee ballot at mnvotes.org.

The Secretary of State's office touted the online registration process as a way to "deliver convenience to voters, reduce errors in voter rosters, and deliver significant cost- and time-savings for local election officials." They estimate the time counties require to process an online application will be one-third to one-half of that needed to process a paper application. This will also minimize inaccurate records that stem from processing handwritten paper forms--like illegible handwriting, incomplete applications, and data entry errors.

For military and overseas voters, the online absentee ballot application will not replace paper applications, but will allow these voters the opportunity to forgo printing, scanning forms, and returning forms by mail, fax or email. In the 2012 general election, there were 10,506 absentee ballots successfully cast by military and overseas Minnesota voters.

Minnesota joins 18 other states that have either passed or implemented online registration. According to projections by the Pew Charitable Trusts at least half of the states will employ online registration by 2016.

In Minnesota, more than 35 municipalities will hold elections on November 5 for various city officers, and 113 school districts will hold elections for school board members and/or have ballot questions. Voters can register online until 5 p.m. on October 15, but it is not required, as voters may still register at their polling place on Election Day.

Many U.S. Voters Abroad Never Received '08 Ballot

More than 1 in 5 American voters living overseas, including those serving in the military, did not receive their official ballots for the 2008 U.S. election, a year in which nearly half of local election jurisdictions reported significant rises in ballot requests from abroad, according to a new survey by the Overseas Vote Foundation.

A major problem, according to a separate survey by the Pew Center on the States, is that 16 states and the District of Columbia send out absentee ballots after the date necessary for military voters to meet required deadlines; three others allow a minimal five-day cushion.

Read more from the International Herald Tribune.

Source: Pew Center on the States, International Herald Tribune

Overseas Voters Receive Attention, Help in 2008

The recent launch of several overseas voting organizations (such as Long Distance Voter and Young Voters Overseas) has combined with this year's constant search for the newest untapped voting bloc to sharpen the focus on voters abroad as of late.

Overseas Vote Foundation

During and after its second annual Overseas Voting Summit in Munich this past April, The Overseas Vote Foundation launched both "Military Voter Services" and "Youth Voter Overseas" in order to zero in on specific overseas constituencies. It also partnered with Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie to create a as well as forged a partnership with FedEx to ship overseas ballots at low or no cost in 2008. Read

Stars and Stripes

Stars and Stripes summed up the issues facing military voters this week in a three-part series on the the difficulty faced by military personnel voting overseas, dealing with the rules and procedures surrounding overseas voting, the struggles voting assistance officers often have in convincing members of the service to take the time to vote, and some of the efforts being made by the smaller public and private entities to make voting easier for military voters overseas.

Federal Voting Assistance Program

The Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) recently revamped its overseas voter help website, www.fvap.org, based on user feedback and focus group studies. The new site has state-specific instructions for voting absentee and features an automated Voter Registration/Ballot Delivery tool. However, following the website's re-launch, a group of 35 Republican congressmen lately called for even more attention to be paid to military voters overseas. The group wrote a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey in a letter to investigate whether FVAP is fulfilling the entirety of its legal obligation to provide adequate assistance to service members abroad. (Government Computing News)

Long Distance Voter

Examining recent deluge of attention to engaging voters abroad, Debra Cleaver recognized that one important absentee voter population was being passed over- absentee voters in the United States. In response, she launched Long Distance Voter, an online clearinghouse of absentee voter information for all 50 states and DC. Long Distance Voter is the most comprehensive resource available for college students, long-distance commuters and folks simply unsure of where they'll be on November 4th. The site hosts voter registration and verification tools, deadline charts, and ballot applications in an easy-to-navigate format that's perfect for students and first-time voters.

GOP seeks probe of military voting assistance programs

A group of 35 congressional Republicans has called for an investigation by the Justice Department into the possible disenfranchisement of millions of military service members in the upcoming presidential election.

“We have failed to adequately protect the right of our troops to participate in our democratic process” by not providing adequate assistance to service members and their families who are away from their homes in the United States or overseas, the 13 senators and 22 representatives wrote in an Aug. 1 letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey. “We ask that the DOJ investigate and determine whether the Federal Voting Assistance Program [FVAP] is fulfilling its legal obligations to provide overseas U.S. military service members and their dependents with the necessary information and assistance to register to vote, request and receive absentee ballots, and vote.”

The federal voting assistance program recently revamped its website, www.fvap.gov.

OVF launches Youth Vote Overseas

Overseas Vote Foundation announced the first site designed specifically for young voters abroad, Youth Vote Overseas, at the 6th Annual American Democracy Project (ADP) National Meeting on June 12, 2008 in Snowbird, Utah.

The Youth Vote Overseas website, started as a Facebook group called "Youth Vote Overseas," enables users to easily navigate the complicated overseas absentee voting process by helping them fill out the registration form online and providing the mailing address, instructions and resources for further information.

FedEx, Overseas Vote Foundation Team Up to Ease Ballot Shipping Woes

Seeking to alleviate a top concern for overseas absentee voters, FedEx will team up with the Overseas Vote Foundation- a nonprofit that helps overseas and military voters to participate and vote- and ship ballots for free or at heavy discounts this fall, the company announced this week. Read more.

NASS Releases Overseas Voting Procedures Survey

The National Association of Secretaries of State has released a survey of state-by-state voting procedures for military and overseas voters. NASS has also partnered with the Overseas Vote Foundation to provide a clickable map for finding state-specific information and guidelines on voting as a citizen overseas. Go to the Overseas Vote Foundation to learn more about voting abroad.