WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Kevin McCarthy, along with members of the House Administration Committee approved the Military Voting Protection (MVP) Act of 2009 (H.R. 2393).  The MVP Act helps ensure timely delivery of overseas military absentee ballots so they are counted, and is now ready to be considered by the full House of Representatives.  

Congressman McCarthy issued the following statement:

“We are now one step closer to ensuring that the votes of our troops serving abroad will be counted.  I am pleased that the House Administration Committee could come together and pass this bipartisan common-sense solution.  Chairman Brady was instrumental in seeing this bill move forward, and I hope that the House Democratic leadership will allow these military voting reforms to come before the whole House immediately.” Congressman McCarthy is the Chief Deputy Republican Whip and serves as the Ranking Member on the House Administration Elections Subcommittee.

Background: The 2004 and 2006 elections revealed that our troops overseas continue to face substantial roadblocks to their participation in elections back home.  According to the Election Assistance Commission, out of the 992,034 military and overseas absentee ballots requested for the 2006 election, more than 660,000 never reached election officials to be counted.  Of the ballots that did reach election officials, many were rejected for various reasons, including 10 percent of those having been received too late to be counted.  Though the official data from the 2008 election is not yet available, the preliminary evidence indicates that our military voters faced the same array of problems in trying to cast their ballots. 

The MVP Act attempts to reduce delays in the absentee voting system currently in place for our overseas troops, who have little control over their geographic assignments.  The bill would provide for the express shipping of their completed absentee ballots, with tracking of these ballots while in transit.  The aim of the bill is to ensure that the ballots of these troops overseas are delivered to the appropriate state election officials by the jurisdiction’s statutory deadline, while safeguarding voter privacy and ballot secrecy. 

Earlier this year, joining Congressman McCarthy in offering Senate companion legislation is U.S. Senator John Cornyn (TX).  Both Senator Cornyn and Congressman McCarthy introduced closely related measures last Congress. The Senate unanimously passed the MVP Act in October 2008, but it was never considered by the House.

H.R. 2393 text

S. 1026 text