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It's in the Mail: Surveying UOCAVA Voters and Barriers to Overseas Voting.
- Source :
-
Conference Papers -- American Political Science Association . 2009, p1-45. 45p. - Publication Year :
- 2009
-
Abstract
- One of modern democracy's biggest challenges is the overseas voter. Current estimates indicate that there are 4 to 6 million Americans permanently or temporarily living abroad. Congress has passed several key pieces of federal legislation to facilitate overseas voting including the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) in 1986 and the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002. This paper investigates the successfulness of these public policy initiatives in reaching overseas voters. Has overseas voting increased as a result of these legislative initiatives? What barriers still exist? What policy changes can be made to promote voting? This paper is divided into three sections. First, in order to capture the variance in state UOCAVA policy, I create an index operationalizing state legislation on overseas voting issues, such as electronic transmission of voting materials. Second, I adapt the variables used in traditional voter turnout studies to create hypotheses, and use data from the Overseas Vote Foundation (OVF) Post-Election Survey to test the hypotheses and identify variables that hinder successful voting. The results demonstrate that variable deadlines combined with postal problems often hamper voters. Furthermore, the impacts of policy are weak and outreach programs remain vitally important. Finally, I interpret these results in order to provide a better direction for future policy changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- *AMERICANS in foreign countries
*VOTERS
*ELECTIONS
*SURVEYS
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Conference Papers -- American Political Science Association
- Publication Type :
- Conference
- Accession number :
- 94887532