The first federal absentee voting law was the Soldier Voting Act of 1942 (P.L. The Federal Voting Assistance Act (P.L. It consolidated the provisions of the Federal Voting Assistance Act of 1955 that pertained to military voters and their dependents, and the Overseas Citizens Voting Rights Act of 1975 that pertained to American citizens abroad. 107-107 ), the Defense Authorization Act for FY2005 ( P.L. 108-375 ), the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for FY2007 ( P.L. 109-364 ), the National Defense Authorization Act for FY2010 ( P.L. In addition to the amendments to UOCAVA mentioned above, the Help America Vote Act of 2002 did the following:
required the Secretary of Defense to establish procedures to provide time and resources for voting action officers to perform voting assistance duties; established procedures to ensure a postmark or proof of mailing date on absentee ballots; required secretaries of the Armed Forces to notify members of the last day for which ballots mailed at the facility can be expected to reach state or local officials in a timely fashion; required that members of the military and their dependents have access to information on registration and voting requirements and deadlines; and required that each person who enlists receives the national voter registration form; amended UOCAVA to require each state to designate a single office to provide information to all absent uniformed services voters and overseas voters who wish to register in the state; amended UOCAVA to require states to report the number of ballots sent to uniformed services and overseas voters and the number returned and cast in the election; and amended UOCAVA to require the Secretary of Defense to ensure that state officials are aware of the requirements of the law and to prescribe a standard oath for voting materials to be used in states that require such an oath. The Ronald W. Reagan National Defense Authorization Act of Fiscal Year 2005 ( P.L. Provisions of the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act

The latest revision of UOCAVA, the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act (MOVE Act), was signed into law by President Obama on October 28, 2009, as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for FY2010 ( P.L. 111-84 ). Under the current law, the director of the Federal Voting Assistance Program administers the FVAP for citizens covered by the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act. Under P.L. Legislation

		114th Congress

Thus far in the 114 th Congress, two bills have been introduced that would amend UOCAVA. Finally, although not otherwise substantially related to UOCAVA, the version of the FY2017 NDAA bill passed by the House ( H.R. 113th Congress

Six bills were introduced that concerned uniformed services and overseas voters. 3576 and S. 1728 , as introduced (see discussion of amended version below in this section), were identical and
would have required states to submit a pre-election report 43 days before an election on whether absentee ballots were sent to absent uniformed services voters and overseas voters 46 days before an election; would have repealed the waiver from the 45-day ballot availability deadline, would have required express delivery for a failure to meet the deadline; would have permitted the use of a single absentee ballot application for subsequent elections; would have prohibited a state from accepting a voter registration and absentee ballot application from an overseas voter because of early submission; would have applied UOCAVA to the Northern Mariana Islands; would have required a biennial report on the performance of the Federal Voting Assistance Program, to be reviewed by the Comptroller General with a report to the oversight committees for election years 2014 through 2020; would have required providing active assistance to active duty members of the Armed Forces through an online system to facilitate voter registration, updating the voter registration record, and requesting an absentee ballot; would have repealed the voting demonstration project authorized by the National Defense Authorization Act for FY2002; and would have extended a guarantee of residency to family members of absent military personnel (see discussion of S. 1728 , as amended, immediately below). The Senate Committee on Rules and Administration held a hearing on S. 1728 on January 29, 2014. 1540 , which did not include such a provision. 111-84 ). Other bills introduced in the 111 th Congress included two sponsored by Representative Maloney, H.R. More than half (277,266) of the ballots transmitted were sent from just four states: California, Florida, New York, and Washington. Election officials in the states and territories counted 94.6% of the ballots returned by UOCAVA voters. 2012 Election

In July 2012, the Election Assistance Commission issued its biennial report on voting by members of the uniformed services and overseas citizens. The Overseas Vote Foundation issued its report on the 2010 election on February 10, 2011, which found that 18% of UOCAVA voters in the survey reported that they did not receive a requested ballot and another 16.5% reported that they had received the ballot "late." It is the only area of election administration law in which legislation has been enacted since passage of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 ( P.L. 107-252 ). In the 2014 midterm election, 34.6% of transmitted UOCAVA ballots were not returned to election officials.
Members of the uniformed services and U.S. citizens who live abroad are eligible to register and vote absentee in federal elections under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA, P.L. 99-410) of 1986. The law was enacted to improve absentee registration and voting for this group of voters and to consolidate existing laws. Since 1942, a number of federal laws have been enacted to assist these voters: the Soldier Voting Act of 1942 (P.L. 77-712, amended in 1944), the Federal Voting Assistance Act of 1955 (P.L. 84-296), the Overseas Citizens Voting Rights Act of 1975 (P.L. 94-203; both the 1955 and 1975 laws were amended in 1978 to improve procedures), and the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act of 1986. The law is administered by the Secretary of Defense, who delegates that responsibility to the director of the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) at the Department of Defense (DOD).
Improvements to UOCAVA were necessary as the result of controversy surrounding ballots received in Florida from uniformed services and overseas voters in the 2000 presidential election. Both the National Defense Authorization Act for FY2002 (P.L. 107-107) and the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (P.L. 107-252) included provisions concerning uniformed services and overseas voting. The Ronald W. Reagan Defense Authorization Act for FY2005 (P.L. 108-375) amended UOCAVA as well, and the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for FY2007 (P.L. 109-364) extended a DOD program to assist UOCAVA voters.
In the 111th Congress, a major revision of UOCAVA was completed when President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY2010 (P.L. 111-84) on October 28, 2009. It included an amendment (S.Amdt. 1764) that contained the provisions of S. 1415, the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act (the MOVE Act).
In July 2014, the Election Assistance Commission issued its Election Administration and Voting Survey report that included data on UOCAVA as well as domestic registration and voting in the 2014 election cycle. The biennial UOCAVA report is mandated by the Help America Vote Act and had previously been issued separately from the general survey report. According to the results, ballots were transmitted to UOCAVA voters by election officials in all 50 states and four of the territories, but more than half of all ballots were sent from California, Florida, New York, and Washington. The rate of ballots returned for counting was slightly lower than in the midterm election of 2010, and substantially lower than in the presidential election of 2012. States counted 94.6% of the ballots that were returned. The Overseas Vote Foundation released the results of its 2014 post-election survey in February 2015. Overall, 74% of those who requested an absentee ballot received it and 23% did not (slightly more than 2% did not know or remember whether a ballot was received).
Two bills introduced in the 114th Congress would amend UOCAVA. These include H.R. 12 which is primarily related to other voting issues; and S. 2814, a version of the FY2017 NDAA bill introduced "by request" but that did not advance. In addition, a provision in the House-passed NDAA bill (H.R. 4909) would continue some UOCAVA reporting requirements, despite terminating some unrelated reports. In the 113th Congress, the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration held a hearing on S. 1728 on January 29, 2014, and reported the bill with an amendment in the nature of a substitute on April 10, 2014. It would have required states to report statistics on the number of absentee ballots sent to UOCAVA voters before the election, established online voter registration and updating for uniformed services voters, and made an absentee ballot request valid for the entire two-year federal election cycle. The legislation did not advance.