Summary

Frank Corte's bill, and Leticia Van de Putte's companion SB90 would establish a pilot program to evaluate the use of e-mail to provide overseas voters in the military their ballots by e-mail in 2008. Committee substitutes of these bills were presented to clarify that the military members would not be voting by e-mail. The e-mail portion is simply the request of the ballot to be mailed to them.

Background

HB 17/SB 90 have the laudable intent of increasing voter participation by members of the military stationed overseas. This pilot program would be a backup in case the mail requested ballot did not arrive in time for the soldier to vote. In the event an election official receives both a paper and e-mail ballot back, the official is required to count only the email ballot. There are safety procedures in place to protect the identity of the soldier, and to determine if two ballots are returned by the same soldier.

There is a valid concern that overseas voters, especially those in the military have a very small window of opportunity to request an early ballot in time to vote and return their ballots to the proper jurisdictions before election day. According to the American Forces Information Service of the Department of Defense, the military would prefer that overseas service members mail their absentee ballots in to local election officials. The second preference behind mailing paper ballots is to fax them (paper ballots) directly to local officials.


A secret ballot is essential in a democracy
No one should ever be asked to waive the fundamental right to a secret ballot, especially our military members. Their rights are just as sacred as the rest of Americans. With the slight changes in the bill's language the privacy right of our military are protected while at the same time increasing the opportunity of their participation in elections.

Additional Links

A Security Analysis of the Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment SERVE

Federal Voting Assistance Program