Lawmakers call for review of voting assistance program

Members of the House Oversight Committee are urging a review of the Defense Department’s Federal Voting Assistance Program for military personnel living overseas.

The Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) assists military service members abroad and U.S. citizens living in foreign countries with absentee voting.

Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), an Iraq War veteran, spearheaded the letter to Comptroller General Gene Dodaro asking the Government Accountability Office to conduct an investigation about the program’s effectiveness.

{mosads}”Public reports indicate that veterans and their families have had a hard time casting their absentee ballots in various states,” the lawmakers wrote. “The Department of Defense’s Federal Voting Assistance Program was created to ensure that our service members fighting abroad to protect the rights of all Americans don’t lose their opportunity to vote in federal elections at home.”

The letter cited reports from the Congressional Research Service, Overseas Vote Foundation and the Heritage Foundation finding that a significant number of absentee ballots from citizens living abroad were not delivered to local election officials in the 2008 presidential election, or were never given to overseas voters on time in the first place.

The Congressional Research Service report found that election officials did not receive about 33 percent of requested military ballots in 2008, while the Overseas Vote Foundation found that 22 percent of overseas voters didn’t get their absentee ballots because they were lost in the mail or delayed.