Overseas Vote Foundation Launches Directory

For Immediate Release

Overseas Vote Foundation Launches
Election Official Directory Service and Licensing

Online Look-up Tool Lists Contact Data for 7,838 Local Election Offices

March 22, 2006, Washington, D.C. Overseas Vote Foundation (OVF) today announced a new online voter service, the OVF Election Official Directory: http://www.ovf-eod.org. The Election Official Directory is a complete, online database of the 7,838 US Local Election Officials (LEOs) which is also offered as a licensed service to other organizations. It joins RAVA SM in the OVF suite of secure, online voter services available at http://www.overseasvotefoundation.org.

"With the Election Official Directory, OVF goes further than any other service to make all the contact information overseas and military voters need accessible – and in greater detail," said Janet Day-Strehlow, OVF’s Election Official Directory Program Manager.

Overseas and military voters’ questions commonly concern three main areas: 1) if a particular voting residence address will be accepted; 2) whether voter registration forms have been received; 3) and lastly concerning ballots, whether they were sent out, received and counted. "Questions such as these can typically only be answered by a local election official and the Election Official Directory facilitates that direct voter contact to those who usually can best provide the answers," stated Susan Dzieduszycka-Suinat, Executive Director, OVF.

The Election Official Directory will save voters and voting officials time and trouble in finding out who to contact with voting questions while giving them options to decide how best to make contact. OVF maintains the data and communicates regularly with local and state election officials to ensure that the Election Official Directory is up-to-date. "LEOs do not always have email, but we hope this service encourages more of them to take up the option. Email is best for communications with overseas and military voters as it avoids cost and time zone issues," added Ms. Day-Strehlow.

"We are interested to see if increased overseas voter contact to LEOs has a grassroots effect on the enfranchisement rates of uniformed and overseas citizen voters, and if it increases visibility into the issues they face in the registration and voting process," said Leslie Reynolds, Executive Director, National Association of Secretaries of State and Advisor to OVF.

The application is purposely being launched well ahead of the heavy voter registration period predicted for the 2006 General Election. Reliable, accurate address data is an intrinsic precursor to the automatic provision of mailing addresses featured in the RAVA voter registration wizard.

The OVF Election Official Directory is available to interested parties for licensing. This will allow other voter-related websites and government agencies to utilize a reliable LEO contact/address database without the investment in data gathering, maintenance and technology.

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Further Information

Overseas Vote Foundation (OVF) was founded in 2005 to assist Uniformed and Overseas American Citizens in registering to vote in federal elections, starting with the November 7th 2006 General Election. The corporation is registered in Delaware. OVF is the first and only nonprofit, nonpartisan 501(c)(3) public charity organization dedicated solely to serving the voter registration needs of UOCAVA voters. RAVA – Registration and Absentee Voter Application is the first Internet-based system to provide a complete voter registration solution for both civilians and military voters. The Election Official Directory is the most complete, online listing of local election officials available.

OVF is a public charity and relies on donations to maintain its operations. Support of our organization is essential to maintaining this system.

Contact: Overseas Vote Foundation
press@overseasvotefoundation.org

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