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 or 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.
UOCAVA ballot is defined as one requested by a voter
who meets one of these criteria:
- A member of the uniformed services or the merchant marine who is deployed overseas or deployed domestically is away from their county of residence.
- A dependent family member of a service member/merchant marine is away from their county of residence due to military deployment.
- Resides outside the United States or whose City/State address is Dulles, VA.
UOCAVA voters may cast an absentee ballot using the FPCA application and are eligible to receive 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.
