Military Voters and Their Families

The Problem

Federal law requires that all states permit military members to vote by mail. However, traditional voting options present difficult challenges for our soldiers serving around the world. In 2020, only 47% of eligible military voters cast a ballot. In 2018, only 26% voted. [Source: Federal Voting Assistance Program].

Servicemembers often lack reliable postal delivery, which is why Congress mandated in 2009 that they be offered an electronic ballot delivery method. But those options impose their own burden, requiring service members to have access to a printer in order to return their voted ballot. Even worse, if the postal return takes too long to be returned to their local election office then their vote won’t be counted. In fact, missed deadlines and late-arriving ballots lead to disproportionately high numbers of rejected ballots among our service members. Ballot rejection rates are as high as 21% in some states for military and overseas ballots. [Source: Election Administration and Voting Survey, 2020].

Mobile Voting Benefits

Mobile voting is proven to make voting easier for military members and their families, helping them cast their ballots in minutes, regardless of where they are serving. A University of Chicago study of West Virginia’s mobile voting pilot in 2018 found that West Virginia’s military voter turnout increased by 3-5%. Similarly, in Denver’s pilot in 2019, military and overseas turnout nearly doubled for its municipal election. And 100% of survey respondents in Denver stated that they preferred to use mobile voting in the future. Military members are willing to pay the ultimate sacrifice for our country. They shouldn’t have to sacrifice their right to vote. Mobile voting will ensure they don’t have to.