Delaware ready to facilitate 2012 voting for military members and citizens overseas

Delawareans in the military, or those who find themselves overseas, will be well-informed about the ability to vote in key elections back home, thanks to a web-based system called VoteDelaware.

Those individuals will be able to register to vote and apply for an absentee ballot, which can be delivered and returned in a variety of ways – by e-mail, fax or regular mail. 

“We want to make it easier for them to vote, and that’s what we think this system does,” Delaware Election Commissioner Elaine Manlove said.  “We are proud to be able to give those living far away and serving our country state-of-the-art tools to exercise their right to vote.” 

For the 2010 election cycle, the state worked with the Federal Voting Assistance Program to reach out to overseas voters.  The VoteDelaware program was developed by the state and is based on a similar system used during a “soft launch” by citizens in Germany, Sweden, Tanzania and Afghanistan. 

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According to Manlove, the state will also save money through having its own system.  “This is our system.  It’s homegrown.  It will save the state going forward on any kind of software licensing fees, maintenance fees.  And, it’s ours,” Manlove said. 

VoteDelaware’s registration module is already available, and the voting process will first be used for the Delaware Presidential Primary on April 24th, 2012.

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