Last Update: October 15, 2015

About

the UOCAVA Flag

The UOCAVA flag is an internal setting in a voter's mail-ballot-request record. It is set (turned on) automatically when Voter Focus determines that the voter qualifies as a UOCAVA voter for the election in which the mail ballot is requested. This determination is made for the Deliver Ballots runs and for several reports, including the Absentee Totals for an Election report. The flag can be turned on off, depending on what the system finds when it does an evaluation.

The UOCAVA flag is associated with the mail-ballot-request record, not with the voter record. It is possible for a voter to "be UOCAVA" for one election but not the next one, if their overseas or military status changes between the elections.

To report on an election's mail-ballot voters whose UOCAVA flag is set, use the Flexible Absentee Report feature and select a Location of UOCAVA.

A UOCAVA ballot is defined one requested by a voter who meets one of these criteria:

UOCAVA voters may cast an FWAB ballot and are eligible to receive mail ballots by email or fax.

Note  Only overseas voters (either military or civilian) can return their mail ballots by email or fax.

Voter Focus determines whether a voter is a UOCAVA voter for an election by examining their overseas, military, military-dependent settings and the address to which the ballot for that election is to be sent.

Email or Fax Delivery of Ballots

Voters who want delivery of their ballot by email or fax must be evaluated as UOCAVA for the election. To pass the "UOCAVA test," the voter's record must have a vote-by-mail address that qualifies the voter as UOCAVA, even though, in the case of email or fax delivery, the ballot will not be sent to that address.

When elections staff are taking a mail-ballot request for email or fax delivery, it is essential that they enter an overseas or out-of-county address for the voter so the voter will be flagged as UOCAVA when the system does an evaluation. This address can be entered in any of the mailing addresses for mail ballots (that is, Ballot Address for This Election, Default Ballot Address (if used by your county), or mailing address). If no overseas or out-of-county address is present when the Email or Fax Delivery run is done, the voter will not be included in the run. Instead, their name will appear in the exceptions list at the bottom of the report generated by the run.