by MVP Project | April 22, 2013 11:04 am
INDEPENDENCE, Ohio (AP) – A nonprofit association is honoring Ohio’s secretary of state for his efforts to ease the voting process for military personnel and their families.
The Association of the United States Army planned Friday to present a certificate of appreciation to Secretary of State Jon Husted (HYOO’-sted) in the Cleveland suburb of Independence. A spokesman for the group says the certificate recognizes Husted’s efforts to simplify the voting process for military personnel and make voting information more accessible.
Read more here[1]
Source URL: http://mvpproject.org/military-voting-news/army-association-honors-oh-secretary-of-state-jon-husted/
by MVP Project | April 10, 2013 11:20 am
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. – A measure written by a local assemblywoman that would give military personnel overseas more voting rights has cleared its first hurdle.
Assembly Bill 269 would allow the ballots of military service members and other Californians overseas to be counted up to three days after Election Day, so long as the ballots are postmarked by that day.
Read more here[1]
Source URL: http://mvpproject.org/military-voting-news/california-ab269-to-give-military-more-voting-rights/
by MVP Project | March 27, 2013 10:08 am
FRANKFORT, Ky. – A last-minute deal on legislation that would allow help streamline the voting process by overseas military personnel has cleared the Kentucky General Assembly.
Working until the last minute of the 2013 session, lawmakers went back to the original Senate version of the military voting bill, which allows for electronic sending of ballots to overseas military but snail mail return of the ballot.
Read more here[1]
Source URL: http://mvpproject.org/military-voting-news/deal-reached-on-kentucky-military-voting-legislatio/
by MVP Project | February 7, 2013 10:35 am
(Excerpt)
[I]n Colorado, efforts to increase military and overseas voter turnout were a huge success in 2012. Compared to 2008, Colorado issued 19.4% more ballots to military and overseas voters and witnessed a 65% increase in the number of ballots returned. In the 2008 election, military and overseas voters returned 69.6% of ballots mailed and
73.5% were counted. In 2012, military and overseas voters returned 93.6% of ballots and 97.8% were counted.
According to Eric Eversole, the Executive Director of the MVP Project, “The efforts taken by the Colorado Secretary of State played a significant role in increasing military and overseas voter participation. The online systems and extended deadlines made it easier to request and receive absentee ballots–even if those requests came weeks before the election. Colorado’s success was truly extraordinary given the decrease witnessed by many states in 2012.”
The Secretary of State launched several programs that helped account for this big increase.
Read the full report here[1]
Source URL: http://mvpproject.org/pdf/2012-general-election-review-a-colorado-success-story/
by MVP Project | January 8, 2013 11:11 am
FRANKFORT, KY. — A bill to make it easier for military personnel and other overseas voters to cast absentee ballots will be Senate Bill 1 in the legislative session that starts Tuesday.
Republican Sen. Robert Stivers, who will be elected Senate president on Tuesday, said during a news conference with Democratic Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes Monday that the military voting bill will get the priority designation.
Grimes said the bill will draw upon recommendations she made last year to reduce the time and expense of casting absentee ballots by mail — a process that sometimes causes ballots to arrive at a county clerk’s office too late to be counted.
Read more in the Courier Journal[1]
Source URL: http://mvpproject.org/uncategorized/military-voting-bill-to-be-kentucky-senates-first-in-session/
by MVP Project | November 24, 2012 12:43 pm
The Bexar County Elections Department had another successful experience handling the overseas military vote during this month’s general election, but local officials could use the military’s help in streamlining the process.
Close to 10,000 absentee ballots were sent out by the elections department prior to the election. Most of the ballots cast were returned early enough to be posted on the election night results, but 1,879 overseas ballots had to be added to the tallies after Election Day. Election law allows elections departments to accept overseas ballots five days after an election.
The added figures did not change any final outcomes, but tabulating them was a labor intensive process that took five days to complete.
Read more here[1]
Source URL: http://mvpproject.org/uncategorized/editorial-military-vote-system-needs-streamlining/
by MVP Project | November 7, 2012 12:31 pm
It’s the rare political rally, Republican or Democratic, that does not include a “thank you” and a prayer for American troops, especially those serving overseas. Yet once again in 2012, the ability of those same troops to exercise their right to vote was, incredibly, still not assured. At a time when so much is being asked of our service members, and in an era when long distances are supposedly no obstacle to the flow of information, this remains a national disgrace.
In 2008, only about 20 percent of overseas military were able to vote by absentee ballot, according to the Military Voter Protection Project. In 2010, it was even worse, at 5 percent. The other 95 percent of those serving overseas simply didn’t vote.
The precise numbers won’t be known for some time, but the percentage of military voters figures to be low again this year. The military was supposed to create Installation Voting Assistance Offices to facilitate voting on all installations worldwide. A late August report by the Defense Department’s inspector general found offices on only half of the installations.
Read more here[1]
Source URL: http://mvpproject.org/uncategorized/editorial-uncle-sams-shameful-neglect-of-military-voters/
by MVP Project | November 7, 2012 12:25 pm
The next president of the United States must do right by our men and women in uniform. Our troops put their lives on the line to protect our right to vote, but untold thousands of them were unable to cast their own ballots on Tuesday. For shame.
Veterans’ groups and soldiers’ advocates have warned about military disenfranchisement for years. M. Eric Eversole, director of the Military Voter Protection (MVP) Project and a former litigation attorney in the Voting Section of the U.S. Department of Justice, reported that “more than 17,000 military and overseas voters were disenfranchised in 2008 because their ballots arrived after the deadline and had to be rejected.”
That doesn’t include the thousands more whose ballots never arrived or arrived at their bases too close to the election to be returned. The total number of troops affected this year could be more than double or triple that because of the relocation of nearly 70,000 military personnel out of Iraq and Afghanistan over the past year.
Read more here[1]
Source URL: http://mvpproject.org/uncategorized/our-disenfranchised-troops-deserve-better/
by MVP Project | November 6, 2012 3:12 pm
FREDERICKSBURG — While Americans flocked to the polls on Tuesday, thousands of U.S. troops failed to receive their ballots.
A voting-rights group blasted the Pentagon for falling down on the job.
“It is another piece of this year’s frustrating military voting puzzle,” said Eric Eversole, head of the Military Voter Protection Project.
On Monday, five U.S. senators sent a letter to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to express their concern over delays in ballots reaching military voters overseas.
Read more here[1]
Source URL: http://mvpproject.org/uncategorized/pentagon-blasted-for-failing-to-get-ballots-to-thousands-of-troops/
by MVP Project | October 23, 2012 2:49 pm
On Wednesday, the National Commander of the American Legion, James E. Koutz’ told the National Executive Committee that veterans must have a voice in Washington and that the issues affecting them must be addressed from absentee ballot requests to defense budget sequestration and the back log of VA claims.
In terms of this year’s presidential elections, Koutz relayed his concerns about service members having access to absentee voting ballots and that those ballots be correctly counted when cast.
The Military Voter Protection Project did a study in August 2012 that found absentee ballot requests from service members are down 70 percent from the 2008 elections.
Read more here[1]
Source URL: http://mvpproject.org/uncategorized/american-legion-co-voting-is-not-a-political-act-its-an-act-of-citizenship/
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