Best Practices for State UOCAVA Web Pages

BEST PRACTICES F O R S TAT E U O C A V A W E B PA G E S Introduction The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) was enacted by Congress in 1986 and provides members of the Uniformed Services, their eligible family members, and overseas citizens with the legal basis for absentee voting in all federal elections. Many state and local election websites contain a page dedicated to voting as a Service member or overseas citizen. To make these pages as useful as possible to inquiring UOCAVA voters, The Council of State Government’s Overseas Voting Initiative (OVI) compiled a list of best practices to ensure the clarity and accessibility of overseas voting information. The best practices listed below are intended for state election websites, however, can also be applied to local election websites. Local election websites must contain information that links to or is based on state law and publically provided information to ensure continuity in how processes are carried out within a state. The 2020 report, Assessing State UOCAVA Web Pages from the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP), also highlights many of these best practices. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to building a state election UOCAVA web page. The following best practices, complete with examples from current state UOCAVA pages, serve as a guide to creating an accessible, usable and readable web page for UOCAVA voters.