On May 18, 2011, the U.S. Department of Defense announced it will award over $15 million in grants to state and local governments under the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) to develop electronic voting options for military voters.
FVAP will award grants to proposals seeking to (1) reduce voting impediments faced by Uniform and Overseas Citizen Absentee Voter Act (UOCAVA) voters and (2) advance innovative approaches to absentee voting by them. According to the grant announcement, the objective is to advance electronic absentee voting system research, development, testing, and evaluation and collect and present data that can show cost-effective methods that, among other things:
1. establish and operate successful, sustainable and affordable electronic tools that will improve voting systems for voters protected by UOCAVA;
2. increase the percentage of ballots successfully returned by UOCAVA voters to be either equal to, or greater than the percentage of ballots returned by the general absentee voting population; and
3. reduce the failure rates for UOCAVA voters experienced in each of the various stages of the absentee voting process.
In this article from Stars and Stripes, FVAP’s director states that he expects money to be awarded later this year, and the new programs to be in place before the 2012 presidential preference primaries.
