Hearing of the House Administration Committee - "Military and Overseas Voting: Obstacles and Potential Solutions"

Statement

Chaired by: Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA)

Witnesses: Gail McGinn, Acting Undersecretary of Personnel and Readiness, Department of Defense; Captain Patricia Garcia, Voting Assistance Officer, U.S. Air Force; Rokey Suleman, General Registrar, Fairfax County, Virginia; Jessie Jane Duff, Gunnery Sergeant, USMC (Ret.); Tom Bush, Director, Federal Voting Assistance Program

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REP. LOFGREN: Well, good morning and welcome to the Committee on House Administration, Subcommittee on Elections, our hearing on "Military and Overseas Voting: the Obstacles and Possible Solutions."

This hearing is going to provide an opportunity for the committee to learn about the outreach efforts of the Federal Voting Assistance Program, the hurdles that military and overseas voters encounter when they are trying to vote from abroad, and possible policy recommendations to address these obstacles.

In a letter to Congress in March of 1952, President Truman wrote, and I quote, "The men and women who are serving their country and, in many cases, risking their lives, deserve above all others the exercise in the right to vote." Unfortunately, nearly 60 years later, we're still struggling with the issue of military and overseas registration and voting.

Members of the military and U.S. citizens who live abroad are eligible to register and vote under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act of 1986. Despite UOCAVA, it is clear that our military and overseas voters are not able to register and cast their ballots without numerous administrative burdens.

Survey data from the Congressional Research Service suggests that one in four ballots from overseas military voters went uncounted in the 2008 election. That figure, coupled with reports from Democrats Abroad that roughly one in five overseas voters were unable to return voted ballots on time, is cause for great concern.

The obstacles to having these ballots counted are varied, but the most common problems are the delivery of election materials to UOCAVA voters, burdensome absentee ballot requirements and varying state requirements and deadlines. While individual states are attempting to address these issues by allowing for electronic transmission of blank ballots or allowing ballots to be returned via fax or e-mail, as well as extending registration deadlines, more needs to be done at the federal level to address the issue.

UOCAVA has produced major improvements, but more effort and resources are needed to ensure the nation's military and overseas citizens can successfully exercise their right to participate in the American electoral process.

In closing, I want to acknowledge Chairman Brady, who, along with the committee and Ranking Member Mr. Lungren, are dedicated to removing these obstacles and ensuring that military and overseas voters can successfully cast their ballots and I hope that this hearing is going to be a material important step forward in -- in making this situation better.

With that, I would recognize the ranking member of this subcommittee, Mr. McCarthy, for any opening statement he may have.

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): Thank you, Madame Chair, I appreciate you having today's hearing and knowing -- in our last Congress, we had a hearing as well, knowing that the voting procedures continue to fail thousands of military personnel overseas.

I have an opening statement that I will submit for the record there. But I would just like to say that this has gone on too long and people have risked their lives and -- for our liberties and we have to do something about that. Record after record has shown the failure of the process of getting these ballots to the military men and women and actually getting it back and having their vote counted.

I would like to ask the chair if she would -- if we could work together. I know there is a new CRS report out that Senator Schumer has. It hasn't been shared with anybody else, but it goes along about the military voting and the failure of process. I'd like to see if we could get a copy of that as well, to work together to make sure we solve this problem and I thank you for the hearing.

REP. LOFGREN: Thank you. And without objection, your full statement will be made part of the record, and the opening statements of other members by -- without objection, will also be made part of the record.

I'd like to move now to the panel before us and get their testimony. And then we'll have an opportunity to ask questions. First, we have Ms. Gail McGinn. Ms. McGinn serves as the acting undersecretary of defense for Personnel and Readiness, and that oversees the Federal Voting Assistance Program. Prior to her appointment as deputy undersecretary in November of 2002, Ms. McGinn was principle deputy assistant secretary of defense for Force Management, Policy, and principle director for Personnel Support, Families and Education. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from William Smith College and her Master's Degree in Education from Boston University.

Next, we have Captain Patricia Garcia. Captain Garcia serves as the officer in charge of the 78th Aerospace Medicine Squadron, the Public Health Flight at Robins Air Force Base in Georgia. In January of 2008, Captain Garcia was appointed the Robins Installation Voting Assistance Officer. During the 2008 election, Captain Garcia directed 65 Unit Voting Assurance officers who served nearly 4,000 military personnel and their dependents with voter registration and absentee voting questions.

We thank you, Captain Garcia, for being here today, and look forward to your testimony.

Next, we have Mr. Rokey Suleman. Mr. Suleman currently serves as the general registrar for Fairfax County, Virginia. Prior to his appointment in 2008, he was the deputy director of the Board of Elections in Trumbull County, Ohio. He is a certified election registration administrator through the Professional Education Program Certification Board at Auburn University in Alabama.

And finally, we have Ms. Jessie Duff, who is a retired gunnery sergeant in the United States Marine Corps. She has served on active duty in the Marine Corps for 20 years. Following her service, Ms. Duff now acts as a volunteer and spokesperson for Military Voting Rights USA, a national network dedicated to ensuring that military voters have their votes cast and counted.

And we thank you, Ms. Duff, for being here today.

We have a procedure here where each -- the full statement of each of you will made part of our official record.

We ask that your oral testimony consume about five minutes and at the conclusion of all of your statements, we will have an opportunity to ask questions.

That little machine in the middle of the table is a -- is a warning light. When the -- when the yellow light goes on, it means actually you have a minute to go on your five minutes and when the red light goes on, it means you -- it always catches people by surprise that the whole five minutes is gone. I certainly won't cut you off in the middle of your sentence, but we'd ask that you conclude when the light goes on so that everybody can be heard.

So if we could begin with you, Ms. McGinn?

MS. MCGINN: Thank you, Madame Chair, Ranking Member Harper and distinguished members of the subcommittee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify about the obstacles service members and overseas voters may face in exercising their right to vote and the initiatives we've undertaken to solve those problems.

I'm joined at the table here today by Mr. Tom Bush. Mr. Bush is the acting director of the Federal Voting Assistance Program and can help any -- answer any detailed questions you may have in addition to me.

The department is dedicated to making the absentee voting process easier and more straight forward. Time and distance, mobility and varying state requirements are barriers that make the absentee voting process difficult for service members, their families and U.S. citizens who live outside the United States.

First is the obstacle of time and distance. The process to register to vote, request an absentee ballot and return the marked ballot for UOCAVA voters can be much more daunting than for voters who live in the same location as where they vote. While there have been extraordinary efforts to expedite the movement of voting materials through the postal system, time and distance create challenges, particularly in areas where mail service is minimal, intermittent or nonexistent. Peace Corps workers, submariners, forward-deployed service members, to name a few, may be most affected.

An important solution to the time and distance problem is leveraging technology. Technology can significantly reduce the time constraints and eliminate the distance problem for most UOCAVA voters.

For the 2010 election, the Federal Voting Assistance Program is pursuing the next generation of electronic tools to assist these voters. We call this initiative the Automated Register, Request and Receive Ballot Process, or R3. R3 will expand on our previous tools by adding an online capability to complete the Federal Write-in Absentee Ballot and expand and enhance the ability of election officials to transmit blank ballots.

Unlike our previous initiatives, this system will be owned and operated by DOD and hosted at DOD facilities, thus mitigating potential threats to personal privacy data and permitting easy refinements and expansion in the future.

The next obstacle is mobility. Military and overseas voters are a dynamic group. Where they are located today may not be where they'll be located for the next election.

We know where military members are assigned and reside, therefore, it is easier to encourage them to notify their state election official of their current address. To facilitate this, each military service reports that when military members arrive at a new duty station, they are provided with a voter registration card so they can notify their state election official of their new address.

Further, we have forged and maintained value partnerships with state and local election officials who carry out the elections, the United States Postal Service, the Military Postal Service Agency, the Department of State, the Department of Justice, other federal agencies and overseas citizen organizations and advocacy groups. The Federal Voter Assistance Program uses a network of voting assistance officers both from the military and the Department of State. We have an extensive training program to hear -- to prepare voting assistance officers to perform their duties.

You will shortly hear from an actual voting assistance officer who can describe her work.

Finally and most importantly is the challenge of varying state requirements. The 55 states and territories administer their elections differently. This means that registration procedures, ballot distribution procedures, voted ballots, return regulations and deadlines are determined by a large number of independent jurisdictions, each jurisdiction with its unique requirements.

We work with the states to promote passage of legislation that is uniform among all states for UOCAVA citizens. The legislative initiatives we encourage states and territories to enact include providing at least 45 days between ballot mailing dates and the date ballots are due, giving chief state election officials the authority to alter election procedures in emergency situations, providing a state write-in absentee ballot to be sent out 90 to 180 days before all elections, and expanding the use of electronic transmission alternatives for voting materials. There have been successes with 47 states adapting one or more of these initiatives.

In conclusion, we know that each UOCAVA voter has a unique set of circumstances and that one solution is not right for everyone. Providing them with as many alternatives as possible to register to vote, request a ballot and return the ballot will help each voter find the solution that works best for him or her.

I would like to thank the committee for your continued support of our service members, their families and our overseas citizens, and all you have done to make it easier for them to vote.

I look forward to answering your questions. Thank you.

REP. LOFGREN: Thank you very much.

Captain Garcia, we'd love to hear from you.

CAPTAIN GARCIA: Good morning, Chairwoman Lofgren, Ranking Member McCarthy and members of the subcommittee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today on behalf of the Robins Air Force Base Voting Assistance Program.

I was appointed as the Robins Installation Voting Assistance Officer in January 2008. The Robins Voting Assistance Program supports the voting needs of the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, the 78th Air Base Wing, and over 30 associate units representing six major commands. I direct the activities of the Robins Voting Assistance Program Committee and 65 Unit Voting Assistance counselors who have served over 4,000 military members and their dependents with voter registration and absentee voting questions.

Before I proceed I would like to emphasize that I can only speak to our Voting Assistance Program at Robins Air Force Base in Georgia.

Our responsibilities at the base level are to educate and assist military members and their dependents on how to register to vote and how to actually cast their votes.

We are mandated not to pressure any individual to register or vote, nor to discourage such actions. Our position as voting counselors has no authority to provide any legal advice concerning change of residency laws, nor to resolve conflicts between members and their local registration or voting officials. Military members with these types of problems are referred to either the local legal office or to the Voting Assistance Program hotline.

According to established guidance, unit commanders appoint a minimum of one Unit Voting Assistance counselor per every 100 unit members for a total of 65 counselors for Robins Air Force Base. These unit counselors were appointed in writing and were required to complete their initial voting counselor training by means of the Federal Voting Assistance Program web site online workshop.

In July 2008, we also held an informational meeting to enhance the online training. A detailed discussion was held concerning their requirements, responsibilities and different methods that could be employed to accomplish those requirements. Numerous resource materials were distributed to counselors, including standardized briefings that could be used at commander's call or e-mailed directly to their unit members.

Between August and September, the unit counselors educated the Robins Air Force Base populace on the Voting Assistance Program, the Federal Voting Postcard, voter registration deadlines and how to vote absentee.

We focused our educational efforts more heavily during Air Force Voter Week and Air Force Absentee Voter Week in September and October, respectively. These included articles in the base newspaper, posters, reminders on the base electronic billboards and various other high- visibility items.

Early voting in Georgia, for locally registered members, was highly publicized during the Air Force Absentee Voter Week in October.

Our program is not limited to the election season. Other instructional activities provided by the Robins Voting Assistance Program include monthly briefings used to introduce and explain the purpose of the Voting Assistance Program to first-term airmen and base newcomers.

Static Voting Assistance displays with motivational posters, election dates, federal postcard applications and informational pamphlets are kept stocked and current at the base library, military personal office and at the Base Exchange.

One last activity I would like to discuss is the voting assistance services provided to our deployers. Prior to deploying at Robins Air Force Base, members are required to attend a pre-deployment fair. During this fair, we distribute the Robins Voting Assistance Program informational trifold. Our hope is that these deployers will reference this pamphlet and know where to get help with voting questions while deployed.

The biggest challenges faced by the Robins Voting Assistance Program were primarily caused by factors outside of our control. The voter registration process is not standardized from state to state, not even county to county in some states. This lack of consistency makes learning how to properly fill out the federal voting postcards very confusing and difficult.

The federal voting postcards are primarily filled out by hand -- sometimes filled out by hand and therefore, at times, it can be difficult to read. Talking to different airmen at Robins, I learned that sometimes this illegibility factor caused the postcards to be returned to the member by the Postal Service. In at least one instance, the member reported information was input incorrectly by a registration clerk, which led to disqualification questions when the member went to vote. Several members were initially denied registration because the voter registration clerks did not know the laws pertaining to military residency.

The variable deadlines for registration and absentee voting confused several military members who thought, because the Georgia deadlines had passed, it was too late to register or send in their absentee ballot even though their home states had later deadlines.

As an American military voter, I would personally like to express my gratitude to all the members of this committee for your concern and your assistance in our effort to vote and be counted.

I look forward to answering your questions concerning the Robins Air Force Base Voting Assistance Program.

REP. LOFGREN: Thank you very, very much.

MR. Suleman, we'd like to hear from you.

MR. SULEMAN: Good morning, Madame Chair and distinguished members of the committee.

Military and overseas voters encounter significant obstacles when it comes to exercising their right to vote. The distance a ballot must travel and the short time frame in which it has to travel creates problems that the average American voter does not face.

I have great sympathy for these absentee voters. The first vote I ever cast was an absentee ballot in Navy boot camp. Although I was medically discharged soon afterwards, the experience left a definite impression about the importance of absentee and military voting.

Changes have been made to make it easier for military and overseas voting -- citizens to enjoy their franchise, but given today's technology, these changes are not enough.

The U.S. Postal Service has created a system to help election officials disseminate ballots to overseas voters. Green tags, such as these, are now available to mark trays of absentee ballots to expedite delivery. APO and FPO ballots are sent to three centers based on zip code. They're sent to either New York, Miami or San Francisco. These changes help separate time-sensitive absentee mail from the regular flood of mail that the UPS processes daily -- on a daily basis.

However, many election officials do not know these extra tools are available to them. Education of election officials across the country may be needed to help alleviate this problem. In Fairfax County, my office issued 8,623 UOCAVA ballots during the November 2008 general election. Out of those 8,623 ballots, 7,332 were returned, a rate of 85 percent. A significant rate -- reason for the high rate of return of our overseas ballots has to be attributed to the fact that Virginia allows ballots to be e-mailed to UOCAVA voters.

In November of 2008, 3,483 of our ballots were sent via e-mail. By utilizing e-mail, we dramatically shorten the time it takes for UOCAVA voters to receive their ballots. This in turn allows the voter greater time to return -- time to return their ballot to us. This extra time is especially important for military voters in a war zone.

During the last legislative session, Virginia expanded the use of e-mail balloting to include any military voter in the United States as well as overseas. I believe this is the first step towards allowing election officials to e-mail a ballot to anyone outside the borders of the Commonwealth. I will welcome that advancement.

A natural extension of this benefit would be to allow voters to return their vote to an office of elections electronically. Currently, a Virginia voter must print their e-mail ballot, fill it out and return it via the mail or a commercial delivery service. This may be problematic for military voters in a war zone or civilians in remote areas of the world. Allowing electronic transmission of a ballot to an office of election will be of great help to overseas voters.

Virginia faced a significant problem regarding the Federal Write- in Absentee Ballot. State law required an address from a witness if the FWAB was used simultaneously as an application from witness and -- as an application for an absentee ballot and a ballot. The FWAB, and only under this specific requirement, was the only absentee ballot in Virginia that required this extra information from a witness. Only after a late opinion by the attorney general was -- that the statute was in conflict with federal law were we able to accept the ballots without that information.

This is an example where a state may put up extra barriers to UOCAVA voters. Although the intention of these laws may be noble, the fact remains that these laws erect significant barriers to many citizens from participating in our most basic right.

The time in which a ballot is available also creates a problem for overseas voters to timely receive a paper ballot. The Code of Virginia requires offices of elections to have a ballot at least 45 days prior to any November general election, 30 days prior to any general, special or primary election or as soon after the deadline as possible in the case of a special election when the deadline is unavailable to be met.

Virginia is fortunate enough to have the time available to deliver the ballots in a general election. States that have mid- September primaries may not have that luxury for a November general election. The time it takes to certify the election and then create and print paper ballots may push a jurisdiction well into the 30 days prior to an election. That is not enough time to process, send and return a paper ballot for a UOCAVA voter.

In Fairfax County, my office will have held five elections in the first six months of this year, three of which were special elections called with a short amount of lead time. Special elections provide the best example of the drastic need to improve our ability to deliver ballots to our UOCAVA voters.

For our February special election, my office issued 5,918 absentee ballots, 3,352 of those ballots were UOCAVA voters. Of those, 1,431 were e-mailed. Only 281 UOCAVA ballots were returned for this election, a rate of 19.6 percent.

Our March special election, there were only 35 days between the dates. There was no way we could get a ballot to an overseas voter in time unless it was transmitted electronically. We e-mailed 139 UOCAVA ballots and mailed 214. Thirty UOCAVA ballots were returned, a rate of eight percent.

If our office only had the ability to send ballots overseas via regular mail, I can guarantee you that our rate -- return rate would be significantly less. Virginia is a good example that the electronic transmission of ballots works and should be used for any UOCAVA voter that requests it.

Not all of this dismal return rate can be attributed to the difficulty of receiving or returning ballots. Most of these voters received ballots to an election that they had no idea was occurring. We assume that some ballots were just deleted or thrown away, but every week, we still receive one or two ballots from an overseas voter for one of our elections. We recently received a ballot for the November general election. We have no idea why these ballots take so long to arrive to our office, but they do.

I thank you for the opportunity to speak and -- to you today and I look forward to answering any questions.

REP. LOFGREN: Thank you very much.

And we'll turn to our final witness, Ms. Duff.

Thank you so much for your testimony.

MS. DUFF: Good morning, Chairman -- Chairwoman Lofgren and Ranking Member McCarthy and members of the committee. Thank you for letting me testify today. I served in the United States Marine Corps for 20 years and retired rather recently. And while I was on active duty, I will express that I was stationed overseas on four separate tours in Okinawa, Japan. During this time overseas, it's very, very difficult. The Marine Corps is a very, very unique force. It's an expeditionary force. It essentially is not in contact with a lot of the United States during the times that they are overseas.

Many civilians may find it very hard to grasp their lack of capability to stay in contact. There is no Blackberry. There is no iPhone. Even if the technology is with you, it doesn't necessarily work overseas. So you are very limited. You do not have Internet access, as many people seem to assume that the technology will be a quick solution.

Often while you were in the field, you aren't out there in a nine-to-five work day. You are out there for weeks. You are out there for months. And often, getting access to any type of Internet usage is not possible for you.

Our access to voting information during my time while on active duty was very, very limited. I did not get approached but one time while on active duty by a voting officer to get registered to vote, and unfortunately, I wasn't even stationed overseas. I was at Camp Pendleton, California.

Military members are often disenfranchised for several reasons. The reality is that there isn't the information accessible to them while they are on forward deployment, even often when they in a situation on a normal base -- that you would expect to see more support.

The -- in -- April 15th is tax day. Two months prior to that -- your taxes being due, throughout every military installation, for two months, they help you get -- they help you get your taxes done and then there's a CFC campaign where military members are able to volunteer to donate money. Guess what? They provide mandatory briefings for everybody so that they can donate to CFC. Whether they choose to or not, is up to them. But yet, there aren't mandatory briefings on registration processes and the teams that are available are so limited that you don't have readily -- readily access to information available.

The most important thing that can happen now for military members to get their vote counted -- and I'm talking about the immediate near future, not long term -- would be an Express Mail delivery service and the reason that I feel that this is so impotent is, right now, the technology isn't available to the military.

We do have a unique opportunity as military members with a CAC card. The CAC card is your military I.D. card. The military I.D. card allows you to go into any computer system and it automatically identifies who you are.

For the future, it would be incredible that a military member can have a voting station set up wherever they are at, slide their card, their ballot is signed into wherever that their home of record is and they get their absentee ballot and they are able to fill it out and then they can Express Mail it back. But right now, we don't have that system available.

So there are a lot of ideas out there that -- we need the training and we need the opportunity for military members to actively register, but in order to get those ballots back on time is probably the most critical question right now.

A delivery time of four days means that military ballots can be cast on a Friday afternoon. A military man or woman overseas can say, "I'm casting my ballot today. It's going to be counted by Tuesday." That is an incredible feeling when you're in the military.

To have to cast your ballot 30 days out and not really know how the turn of the election is going to go is a very disturbing thought for many of us on active duty.

An overseas military voter can judge candidates on the full period of the election. As we all know, things do pop up right before election time. A delivery time of four days with Express Mail, not three weeks, will increase turnout because interest in elections is highest near the end of the election. You know, to force a military member to get actively aggressive -- involved and there really hasn't been a lot of the -- the interest going until that last few weeks, is very difficult for them also.

Express Mail will reduce the need for faxed ballots, which can honestly force a military member to lose the integrity of their ballot. You don't know who will see that fax. You don't know who will witness it.

Military mail often doesn't have a postmark. This is another thing a lot of people don't recognize. MPS does not necessarily postmark your mail. So if we say we can accept it three weeks after, how do we know that it was cast before the election? We don't. So it's critical. With Express Mail, you are able to see a postmark on that. From four days -- four days over three weeks of delivery is a critical element for military people.

An Express Mail delivery time of four days, not three weeks, would ensure far fewer military voters will be disenfranchised and ballots arriving late. Express Mail would maintain the secrecy of the ballot, ensure public confidence, which the public doesn't have a lot of confidence in some of the technology right now and military voters will have their ballots counted.

I respectfully appreciate the opportunity to testify this morning and I am open for any of your questions at this time.

REP. LOFGREN: Thank you very much for your testimony.

And thanks to all the witnesses for all of your testimony and statements.

Now is the time when we can follow up with our questions and I would turn first to the ranking member for -- to begin our question period.

REP. MCCARTHY: Thank you, Madame Chair.

I appreciate all the testimony today. I found it very, very intriguing.

Just one quick question to Mr. Suleman -- is that correct?

MR. SULEMAN: Yes.

REP. MCCARTHY: You did bring up the -- I remember the issue about military absentee ballot. And your jurisdiction believed that you had to have a witness, even though if you voted absentee and you lived there, you did not have to have a witness. And you brought that up in your testimony.

Was there any other jurisdiction in Virginia that interpreted it the same way as you guys did?

MR. SULEMAN: There were several jurisdictions in Virginia that chose to ignore the law that -- that required--

REP. MCCARTHY: But it didn't interpret it the same way that you did?

MR. SULEMAN: No. And they -- they interpreted the law correctly. And the secretary of the State Board of Elections interpreted the law that way, but they were choosing to ignore the law.

In Fairfax County, we felt, you know, we don't have the ability to ignore the law. We didn't like the law. We brought the law to everybody's attention before the election and said, "This is going to be a significant problem." And only by an attorney general's opinion saying that the law was in conflict were we able to accept those ballots.

REP. MCCARTHY: Did you go back and count the ballots?

MR. SULEMAN: All of those ballots were counted. That is correct.

REP. MCCARTHY: Okay.

To Ms. Duff, one, thank you for your testimony. I found it very intriguing, especially from, one, for your service for 20 years, for all of the service that you provided.

But -- but you made something very interesting to me. I mean, we look at how do we solve the system today in the best manner that we can and, in the future, even improve it. Some of the testimony talked about the Internet and stuff, and real-life experience that you gave, that you don't have the option for that and you talked about Express Mail, which I happen to put in -- a bill in that does the Express Mail and the four day.

But when we talk about this issue, we talk about military voting, we talk about overseas voting, and it always gets lumped together, but in your testimony, you brought a lot of attention to me, the different hardships. If you're in the military, could be much different than if you're just a citizen overseas.

And if you could explain, maybe elaborate a little more the difference, and should they be treated different? Because right now, it doesn't seem that they're being treated differently.

MS. DUFF: Military members are sent overseas, not necessarily out of choice. They're sent there by the federal government and they will ensure that they serve their duty over there.

They are going to be subjected to usually long -- long periods away from their families. They are often enduring circumstances in the field operations that are -- do not offer facilities that most people would experience who are civilians overseas.

The hardships are -- are very, very, very difficult and I'm not even talking about combat operations. Keep in mind, I served in field operations that were not combat related. We trained explicitly for combat and we duplicated combat conditions, but I wasn't in a combat situation. My mail was delayed constantly. I mean, I remember getting vacation postcards after mother got home a month earlier. So that was quite interesting. But those are maybe humorous examples.

But when you're talking about your election, military members do not have the choices that a lot of their civilian counterparts have. You're talking about seven day work weeks often and sometimes you got to sleep literally to get right back up and go back into your -- your post.

REP. MCCARTHY: Another point that you brought up though was very intriguing to me, is you got tax day, you got CFCS combines--

MS. DUFF: The Combined Federal Campaign.

REP. MCCARTHY: Yes, the campaign, yes. Those are mandatory and they provide -- but you had no mandatory, when it came to voting, assistance within there?

MS. DUFF: I wouldn't say that the tax -- tax offices that they set up were mandatory. What they do though is about two to three months prior to your taxes being due, they set up offices throughout the base to assist people with taxes and the teams are trained, not just one officer. You're trained on basically submitting state and federal taxes.

Now those tax laws get pretty complicated, I would assume too. So obviously, voting laws can be something that they can be trained in and I think there should be facilities that are easily accessible for military members to -- to acquire -- not only when they come onto base do they get registered with that CAC card -- that CAC card is a guaranteed signature that this is a real person. They can utilize that.

But also the Federal Absentee Write-in Ballot, that's been around since 1986. I never heard of it while I was on active duty, not once. One of the members of my -- one of my friends, who served in Iraq, on his third tour, told me that he had not received his absentee ballot on time. He had to pull himself out of the field, go -- found the Internet, found a Federal Write-in Ballot, and never had heard of it himself, and got his ballot cast on time.

Now, with Express Mail, you can get the Federal Write-in Ballot mailed in or you can get your absentee ballot write-in.

I mean, 2010 is right around the corner. I think we've got to have a quick solution and then we can work on some of these technology issues so their proficient and good for the rest of the population.

REP. MCCARTHY: The one thing, when you said Express Mail, you're talking about they don't even postmark your mail. So we wouldn't know -- that would give Mr. -- Mr. Suleman a difficulty of knowing when it was mailed or if you could count it in time when the election is over. So, one, we're putting a burden upon you, currently the way the system is, but if we had a tracking system, that was the Express Mail, you could track each ballot, so you would know where it was at and where it was coming from. Would -- would you find that as something to be helpful in your--

MS. DUFF: Absolutely. Military members often feel like they're going into a big abyss when they cast that ballot. They don't know that it even gets there. The reality is, with Express Mail, we're going to go from three weeks to four days. And it sounds like there's times where it's been longer than three weeks, sometimes four or five weeks. That is an undue burden on a military member to ensure that they get that ballot in the mail box on time.

Express Mail can happen. I've seen many things happen in the military. When they're told to do it, they do it. And they can get those Express Mail forms filled out Friday, and then it's counted on Tuesday. And everything's on time. And states don't have to modify their laws now.

REP. MCCARTHY: Okay.

REP. LOFGREN: The gentleman's time has expired.

I would turn to the gentle lady from California, Ms. Davis, for her questions.

REP. SUSAN DAVIS (D-CA): Thank you, Madame -- Madame Chair.

And thank you all for being here and for your service as well.

I'm glad that my colleague brought up the tracking system because we're working together on a bill that would allow voters overseas, military voters, of course, to do this. There are several states that already have it and even in -- in our area, in San Diego, there were something like 98,000 voters who checked our online system to see where their ballots were. So we think that's very, very valuable.

And you -- you mentioned, Ms. Duff, that that would be helpful.

Let me just see if I could ask others as well if this would make a difference. One of the things that was mentioned is that you can't always have access to the Internet. But -- but still the tracking would be helpful. And would that be at a --

MS. DUFF: Well, you can get -- eventually, you will get access to the Internet. So it's not something that -- eventually, you can go back and see that your vote was counted and I'm not saying all military is -- is unable to use the Internet. But even if you can go back a week after you come out of the field and say, "yay, my vote counted."

REP. DAVIS: Yeah.

Could -- could -- could the rest of you respond in terms of the ability of voters to track their ballot and how helpful that would be?

MS. MCGINN: I think it would be very helpful. I think you're back to a situation where the states treat -- have -- have different rules about electronic transmission, what they pass back and forth and so you're back to struggling with how do you get states to do that as a whole.

And I think that Ms. Duff raises an interesting point and one of the things that we talk about, which is that nobody's situation is the same, and some people need to send their ballots and some people can fax their ballots and, in some cases, some people can actually transit their ballot electronically, and so we need to cover all of those bases somehow, which is a challenge of the program. But that's -- that would be my sense that it would be good to be able to track it.

REP. DAVIS: I think even in thinking about the -- a tracking system and being able to do it online, but also, too, an 800 number would be included in that legislation.

CAPTAIN GARCIA: Thank you, ma'am.

I think it would be very satisfying for our military members to know that their vote is counting and that it doesn't get lost in the abyss. The only thing I would like to add is we're only talking about our overseas. But there are still a lot of military members here in the States who feel like their vote doesn't count. So the only thing I would ask that -- I don't -- I don't know the specifics of the legislation -- if it's also going to include absentee ballots within the U.S., not just our overseas members.

REP. DAVIS: Yes, absolutely. That's the whole idea, yes.

CAPTAIN GARCIA: Thank you, ma'am.

REP. DAVIS: Country -- count -- countrywide. And I guess, overseas, so that's global, right? (Laughter.)

MR. SULEMAN: From an election administrative standpoint, I would truly welcome an online ability to check the status of your absentee ballot.

We do have something like that in Virginia and anything that can take the burden of phone calls away from our office during the last 30 days of an election to help us to prepare for everything else that we have to do, is a -- is a welcome advancement.

The -- the -- the tracking for Express Mail would also be a -- a significant help to us if we could determine when a ballot was put into the mail in the first place, that way we don't have to worry about, you know, attempting to check postmarks.

In Ohio, where -- my previous jurisdiction, we were able to accept absentee ballots up to ten days after the election as long as they were postmarked, and we also received a directive from the secretary of state that, if we could not determine a postmark or if there was not a postmark, we had to assume that it was mailed prior to the election. So we -- we at least opened up a window to allow a little bit more ballots to be accepted.

In Virginia, unfortunately, all absentee ballots have to be received by my office by the close of polls on Election Day. That's a significant impediment to collecting overseas ballots. I would welcome a standard, uniform rule where -- where any overseas ballot would be accepted within a ten -- ten-day or a five-day window, whatever that window is selected to be, but at least a window after the election so that we can get a little bit more of these ballots counted.

REP. DAVIS: Okay. Okay. Now, you --

MS. MCGINN: Can we -- can I just --

REP. DAVIS: Yes.

MR. MCGINN: We actually have experience with tracking I hear. So if I could just turn to my colleague, Mr. Bush, for a minute.

MR. BUSH: I -- I just think it's important to note, for the 2008 election, we did work with the United States Postal Service and not in every -- every region, but we were able -- we did use the tracking system where they had the technology. They were in the process of doing that. So they were -- they were putting a bar code on the ballot so we could track them coming back.

We also used Express Mail the last week of the election to expedite mail coming back, working with the Postal Service.

And one of the comments that was made was that the Military Postal Service doesn't postmark material, and, if fact, the Postal Service, for balloting material, they were issued a postmark so they could postmark every ballot so we could identify and track when it was received into the system.

REP. DAVIS: Yes, right. Thank you.

Can you all think of any reason why we shouldn't do that? It sounded pretty unanimous to me. Okay, thank you very much, Madame Chair.

I actually have a few other questions if there's another round, but otherwise, I want to thank you all.

REP. LOFGREN: All right.

The gentleman from Mississippi, Mr. Harper.

REP. GREGG HARPER (R-MS): Thank you for being here today. It's -- it's a great concern that we have to make sure that the men and women in the military, to make sure that their votes are counted.

Do any of you think that the -- those that are in uniform overseas should be treated differently that just civilians who are overseas in the process?

MS. DUFF: I -- I do. And --

REP. HARPER: And -- and -- and do you -- why do you think they should be differently?

MS. DUFF: Because of the conditions that they have to endure that most of your civilians, who choose to be overseas, are not enduring. Military members are sent their by the federal government and the federal government should be responsible for ensuring that their vote is counted and the conditions that they're under do not allow that normally.

REP. HARPER: So extra attention and extra effort to make sure that -- that those are properly cast?

MS. DUFF: Absolutely.

They're there in service of their country, sir.

REP. HARPER: Yes. And I know they seemed to be always lumped together in -- in these requirements.

So, Ms. -- Ms McGinn, I'd love to -- to have your views on that.

MS. MCGINN: I expect that -- I guess maybe I'm thinking of the State Department now specifically, or industry, but I suspect that our military members all probably tend to be younger and maybe away from home for the first time. And so therefore, I think we need to be very assertive in getting the world out to them, as Ms. Duff said. You know, we try to use every possible way to get the word out to people about voting. Our senior leaders have commented -- you know, they go into our deployed areas and everywhere they look as the election approaches, there are banners and posters, and it's hard to not see them. But I think that the fact that they're younger and they don't have as much experience perhaps really does mean that we need to do a very, very pro-active effort -- outreach effort to them.

REP. HARPER: Okay.

Now, the Department of Defense knows what the -- the declared state of permanent residence is of every member of the military, do they not? They would -- they would have that information somewhere within their -- their files.

MS. MCGINN: Yes.

REP. HARPER: As to whether they were from Texas or whatever state. Would that be correct?

MR. BUSH: If I can, sir?

REP. HARPER: Yes, sir?

MR. BUSH: We know what their home of record is. We know where they're currently stationed. That may be different than when they registered to vote.

REP. HARPER: Okay.

MR. BUSH: So right now, I'm -- in fact, I'm exploring, with our privacy act folks, if there is a way that we can get their -- the place where they're registered to vote. There are some concerns. I've got to work through that. But that would be helpful then if we could target where they're registered to vote. Because in -- in our business, that's what really matters.

REP. HARPER: And I know we're talking about, you know, many, many people. But if you had that in the system where their declared voter residency was and then there was a change of duty, would -- if that something that you can envision that the DOD could notify then of the new or a change of address for them for that purpose?

MR. BUSH: What we could do, when we have somebody that changes -- that's part of the privacy concern, is what we share with the states, but if -- if we had that information, we could push information to that particular member, just like when we have somebody that checks in a new duty station. But we could push that information to the members, reminding them that they need to register to vote. They need to change their location when they -- when they do change that.

If I could just point out one thing you're talking about.

REP. HARPER: Yes, sir.

MR. BUSH: The difference between military and civilians stationed overseas? There is a different I think. But you also have to think of people like Peace Corps workers who are may -- who may be in remote -- remote locations that may have the same sort of hardships that some military members experience. So we have to sort of -- you can't just, I think, separate the two into two distinct groups. We have to think holistically. But an extra effort on the military and those that are in remote locations clearly is an area that we need to focus on.

REP. HARPER: Okay.

Well, certainly, we appreciate what those in the Peace Corps do, but it's a little different for those that are in uniform who put their life on the line in combat situations. Is there any problem giving them preferential treatment to make sure that we don't miss those -- those opportunities to cast those ballots?

MR. BUSH: Oh, no sir. I'm not saying that we should not make every effort to keep our military informed and help them in the voting process. No.

REP. HARPER: Captain Garcia, if I could ask you, if there any voter registration card or information and -- and when somebody comes to your base that gets information that perhaps could be used to -- to help them in that process?

CAPTAIN GARCIA: Yes, sir. As I mentioned in my statement, when people come in -- we continue our continuous education instruction. We have monthly briefings for first-term airmen and newcomers to the base. Anybody who comes into the base will have to go to either one of those venues. At that point, we do have a brief. And our counselors are trained to help them actually fill out their Federal Voting Assistance Programs.

REP. HARPER: All right.

CAPTAIN GARCIA: Also, as I mentioned, we have the static displays that are located at the MPF, the BX and the library. So as you're walking by, you can see the large displays. And if you have any questions, the pamphlets can direct you to your unit counselor to help you fill those.

REP. HARPER: Is there any follow up to monitor who has filled those out and who has not?

CAPTAIN GARCIA: We're not allowed to do that, sir.

REP. HARPER: Okay. Thank you very much.

That's all the questions.

REP. LOFGREN: The gentleman yields back.

I -- I think this has been very helpful and -- and as I think about the testimony here today, it strikes me that we need to do everything, not choose among alternatives.

For example, as -- as Mr. Bush has said, we've got people who are in remote areas in the Peace Corps, in the CIA, in the military, I mean, in - in the State Department, USAID, who have different constraints and then we have people, you know, Americans who are, you know, in the State Department but they're in London. You know, so that's -- I mean -- and the -- the -- the challenges are going to be different.

So I think that the use of technology, the use of Priority Mail, I mean, these are -- these are all good things and whatever we do, we need to make sure that they are all approached so that we can serve everybody.

In terms of the military, I mean, we've got -- two years ago, we had --nearly 46,000 of our American military were non-citizens and so we need to make sure -- I like the military I.D. card, but not everybody with a military I.D. card is eligible to vote because they're not an American citizen. So we can use that, but there needs to be another level of, you know, assurance on that.

I'm interested, Mr. Suleman, on the Internet issue, because for some voters abroad or even military within the United States, the -- for example, New York. New York has a September primary. You know, I guess that's up to them. But it makes it very difficult to mail out -- it's almost impossible to mail out a -- a ballot to Iraq and get it back with a -- a September ballot. So the Internet example, I think, is -- is very attractive to me. And certainly, the use of the Internet has exploded, even since you were in the military in 2004. A friend of mine is -- was just deployed to Iraq. He has a blog. So, I mean, it's -- it's really -- the Internet is exploding.

What kind of security do you have? That's the question we always get. What about the security if we use the Internet.

I always think I feel secure enough when I do my banking online. But what -- what would you recommend as somebody on -- who worries about the integrity of the system?

MR. SULEMAN: The security of an Internet e-mail ballot, to me, would be almost the same as the security -- as long as it's done on a secure server, the same as the security for a regular absentee ballot. There is some thought that people lose the secrecy of the ballot when they would potentially e-mail a ballot. The same thing exists when you -- you submit any sort of absentee ballot because an election official has to separate that ballot from that identification envelope and at that particular moment, there is the potential to identify a vote to a voter.

I -- I do believe that we should start looking for more e-mail and Internet solutions. I mean, you -- you said about your banking, I mean, I pay all my utilities online. I buy concert tickets online. I buy pizza online. I do my banking online. I really don't see why we cannot, you know, afford people the ability to both, you know, receive and submit a ballot online. There -- there are secure methods to -- to transmit material over the Internet and we -- we do it all the time and I really don't see why we can't do that for our -- our ballots for overseas citizens.

REP. LOFGREN: Ms. McGinn, what do you think about the Internet option? What are the constraints that you see?

MS. MCGINN: I think it is a very valuable option. I mean, we have deployed in Iraq right now Internet cafes for the troops who are over there so that they have access to Internet sites. What we're trying to do with our next step in technology is to create the secure environment and to expand the use of the Internet for receiving the ballots and maybe someday submitting a ballot.

I think, as we said before, it's an option that's very important. Some day, we'll probably all do it. Of course, there are security issues involved and we are awaiting some advice from the Election Assistance Committee and NIST on what we would need to do to create a secure Internet environment for voting. But we have been -- we've had several initiatives in that way and I think it's important for us to continue to pursue them.

REP. LOFGREN: Well, I'll just say I know that NIST is -- is the expert on all these technologies. We're blessed in the United States to have that government entity that is so nerdy and so on top of this stuff. (Laughter.)

REP. LOFGREN: So we'll look to them for good advice. But I think that this has been an important first step. I mean, it's -- obviously, we want to make sure that the men and women who are American citizens have every chance and -- and -- to vote and to know that they have the right to vote, but also, you know, our Peace Corps and every -- everybody who's got a right to vote, has that chance to go ahead and exercise that franchise.

So I think this has been enormously helpful.

We will be holding open this hearing for five legislative days to allow for additional questions and if we do have them, we will forward them to you and ask that you answer them as promptly as possible and we -- I think we had a few requests for -- what happened to it? We've had requests for testimony to be submitted and I would ask unanimous consent that the following documents be made part of the official record: a statement from Democrats Abroad, a statement from the Uniform Law Commission, a statement by Dr. Al Ilsinsak (ph), a statement by Everyone Counts, a statement by Facoaroe (ph) and ACA, a statement by Pew, a statement by OVF, a statement by FairVote, and a statement by Congressman Rush Holt.

And without objection, those statements will be made part of the record.

And we will now be in adjournment with tremendous thanks to you for your wonderful testimony and helping us move forward on this enormously important issue.

END.

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