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| Saturday, 07 February 2009 02:40 |
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School of CIS Dean Addresses Overseas Vote Foundation 2009 Third Annual UOCAVA Summit - Press Conference
February 5, 2009. Today, Alec Yasinsac, Dean of the School for Computer and Information Sciences at the University of South Alabama was Distinguished Speaker at the Overseas Vote Foundation (OVF) 2009 Third Annual UOCAVA1 Summit - Press Conference. This event brought together local, state, and federal elections officials with technology experts and legislative representatives to present results of the recent OVF study on effectiveness of military and overseas voting during the 2008 election.
Speaking on "No Status Quo for Military and Overseas Voters", Dr. Yasinsac made the case for making it a priority to aggressively employ technology to empower military and overseas voters.
"We sometimes forget that even under the best available circumstances, military and overseas voters face obstacles at every step of the voting process. This is reflected in the paltry 27% effectiveness of the present absentee system as compared to the general voting public where absentee voting is 86% effective, according to a recent study by Pew Trusts2." Yasinsac said.
Military and overseas voters face complex, multi-step processes that can be unforgiving of simple errors, such as placing a document in the wrong envelope or failing to sign in all required places. This in in stark contrast to polling place voting where procedures can detect, and allow voters to correct, many simple voting errors on the spot.
According to Yasinsac, "Military and overseas voters can't stop by the polling place on the way to work, they can't fix errors on their marked ballot, can't change their minds, and can't ask poll workers for assistance. None of these issues are insurmountable by themselves, but in combination they are often overwhelming. This problem has improved very little in the history of our country and it is time that we fix it."
1Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act ------------- The OVF is a privately funded organization that has focused its efforts on using technology to eliminate or minimize front-end challenges to military and overseas voters. Their web sites assisted nearly five million voters gather information about absentee voting processes for the 2008 election across the fifty states. ------------- The University of South Alabama School of CIS remains engaged in the U. S. Elections Assistance Commission (EAC) Voting System Risk Assessment (VSRA) project that was awarded in September 2008. This risk assessment will be used by the EAC and elections officials throughout the United States to make voting system certification and use decisions. ------------- See also: OVF Press Release: https://www.overseasvotefoundation.org/ss/link.php?M=173274&N=87&L=6 Government Computing News, February 5, 2009, "Ballot box blues continue", http://gcn.com/articles/2009/02/05/overseas-voting-survey.aspx Stars and Stripes, February 5, 2009, "Report: Half of absentee ballots got to overseas voters too late", http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=60516 Mobile Press Register, February 5, 2009, "Researcher: Keep pursuing Internet voting option", http://www.al.com/news/press-register/metro.ssf?/base/news/123391540471650.xml&coll=3
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