Oklahoma doesn’t give absentee voters enough time

See States want better Military Absentee Voting Procedures for more background

Oklahoma and 15 other states, Are criticizes in a Pew Center report on Military Personnel Absentee Voteing, saying they do not provide sufficient time for overseas military personnel to vote by absentee ballot.

No Time to Vote: Challenges Facing America’s Overseas Military Voters contends those states and the District of Columbia send out ballots after the date necessary for military voters to meet all required deadlines. It ranks three other states as “at risk.”

Quoting data from the federal Election Assistance Commission, the center said that in 2006, only a third of the estimated 1 million ballots distributed to military and overseas voters were actually cast or counted.

About 6 million military and overseas civilian voters have the right to cast absentee ballots in American federal elections.

“We cannot allow the men and women who defend our country to be denied the ability to exercise this basic democratic right,” said Doug Chapin, director of Make Voting Work. “While individual states have adopted a wide range of improvements, the lack of consistency across their absentee voting processes presents one of the greatest challenges to military and overseas citizens attempting to navigate the system.”

Chapin said there are some common-sense fixes that can get the nation closer to ensuring that all U.S. citizens have the opportunity to exercise their right to vote successfully.

Regarding Oklahoma, the Pew researchers said overseas military voters are allowed to fax ballot requests, but the state requires ballots to be transmitted to and from voters by mail.

“Because the time needed for ballots to travel by mail takes longer than the time Oklahoma provides in its process, its military voters abroad would need at least 32 additional days to have enough time to vote,” the report concluded.

Toward that end, the researchers said Oklahoma could follow the lead of 32 other states and send blank ballots to overseas military voters by fax, e-mail or some other electronic means, such as a Web site.

“Still, even with that reform, the state’s military voters abroad would have a cushion of fewer than five days to accommodate any delays in the process – putting them at risk of not having enough time to vote,” the report stated.

To address that problem, the researchers said, Oklahoma could send absentee ballots to voters earlier, extend the deadline by which completed ballots must be received to be counted, or a combination of the two that would add at least 32 days to the process.

The Pew analysis found that four changes could bring about improvements, although not every reform would be right for every state:

• Expanding use of the Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot, which can be used if military voters do not receive state ballots in time.

• Allowing electronic transmission of election materials.

• Ensuring at least 45 days to allow ballots to travel between voters and election agencies.

• Eliminating a requirement that completed military-personnel ballots be notarized before being returned.