Press Releases

U.S. Vote Foundation to Tackle a Nationwide Data Problem

New Local Elections Data Resource and API

NEW YORK, NY, January 18, 2017 – U.S. Vote Foundation’s (US Vote) twelve year investment in development of its election data and API technology will be used to address a vast and unmanaged data challenge: Local Election Dates and Deadlines. The announcement was released at the Knight-Civic Hall Symposium on Tech, Politics and the Media.

“Ask anyone if they know the date of their next local election and what it is about, or how to find out? They cannot tell you. People are not participating in the elections that direct affect the quality of their lives. We are poised to unlock this data and fix that problem,” states Susan Dzieduszycka-Suinat, US Vote’s President and CEO.

A Knight Foundation Prototype Fund grant for “Local Election Dates and Deadlines (LEDD) Data Resource and API” served to kick-start the program.

US Vote Announces 2016 Election Day Voter Experience Survey Highlights

January 16, 2017 - The 2016 Election Day Voter Experience Survey, conducted by U.S. Vote Foundation (US Vote) together with its Overseas Vote initiative from Nov 8-11, 2016, provides new insights into approximately 12,000 voters’ actual experiences of casting a ballot (or not) through six different voting methods, both domestic and overseas.

Highlights / Key Findings

Among the many new insights, certain findings stood out:

  • Satisfaction and Motivation – 76% of all respondents indicated they were satisfied or very satisfied with the voting process; and in a rating from 1 to 5, with 5 highest, overall voter motivation was 4.6%
  • Online Ballot Delivery Dominates for Overseas Voters – For the first time ever in a general election, overseas absentee voters in the 2016 election were more likely to receive their blank ballots through an electronic method (72%) than through postal mail

U.S. Vote Foundation Welcomes Michael Steele to its Executive Board

WASHINGTON DC, March 24, 2016  -- U.S. Vote Foundation (US Vote) announced today that Michael Steele, Former Chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC) has joined its board of directors.

“As we move forward with our mission of informing and enfranchising voters, US Vote will benefit from the leadership of Mr. Steele through its Executive Board,” US Vote President and CEO Susan Dzieduszycka-Suinat. “His tremendous political and policy experience coupled with his expertise in communications and advocacy will positively influence the vision and development of the organization.”

“I look forward to further strengthening US Vote and working to enable more voices to be heard in this and future elections. Every citizen’s civic life should have voting as a central action. With US Vote, I hope to bring a new focus to the importance of voting,” stated Mr. Steele who is currently a political analyst at MSNBC where he has worked since 2011 after his successful tenure at the RNC.

The Jerusalem Post, Metro: Making a statement for democracy

By Sarah Hershenson, 3/10/2016 [See original article in The Jerusalem Post, Metro - subscribers only]
Editor: Erica Schachne; Subeditors: Daniel Halberman, Yakir Feldman, Menashe Koren; Graphics: Nechame Rosenstein

The importance – and ease – of casting your ballot in American federal elections from overseas.

"Ballots are stronger than bullets” was a phrase used by Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the US, several times in speeches. Even though he led his country through the Civil War, a period of turbulence and bloodshed, he never lost sight of the democratic ideal.

This November, 151 years later, American citizens of the US will go to the polls to elect a new president and use the power of their ballots to make a statement for democracy.

Consensus Reached on Recommendations Toward the Future of Internet Voting

 U.S. Vote Foundation Releases New System Requirements, Specifications, Architecture and
Cryptographic Foundations for End-to-End Verifiable Internet Voting 

July 10, 2015 – Today’s release of The Future of Voting: End-to-End Verifiable Internet Voting Specification and Feasibility Assessment Study by U.S. Vote Foundation establishes a new reference for the security, usability and transparency requirements essential to the U.S. in any consideration of Internet voting for public elections. The announcement was made at the Annual Summer Conference of the National Association of Secretaries of State, hosted this year in Portland, Maine.

Developed by a team of the nation’s leading experts in election integrity, election administration, high-assurance systems engineering, and cryptography, the report starts from the premise that public elections in the U.S. are a matter of national security. The authors assert that Internet voting systems must be transparent and designed to run in a manner that embraces the constructs of end-to-end verifiability – a property missing from existing Internet voting systems.

An end-to-end verifiable (E2E-V) voting system allows voters to 1) check that the system recorded their votes correctly; 2) check that the system included their votes in the final tally; 3) count the recorded votes and double-check the announced outcome of the election.  An Internet voting system that is end-to-end verifiable is an E2E-VIV system. The new set of system specifications that could eventually lead to a model E2E-VIV system includes an ideal cryptographic foundation, security, audit, and usability considerations, as well as technical approaches to the system architecture.

U.S. Vote Foundation Announces Mark Ritchie as New Board Member


May 27, 2015, WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Vote Foundation (US Vote) is pleased to announce that Mark Ritchie, former Secretary of State for the state of Minnesota, has joined the organization’s Executive Board. US Vote is a nonprofit, nonpartisan 501(c)3 organization, which develops and provides domestic, overseas and military voters with public access to innovative voter information, registration and vote-by-mail ballot request services.

“My first priority as a member of the US Vote Executive Board will be to make sure that US Vote has the resources it needs to support their development vision and their mission to make it easy for every citizen to be an active voter,” added Ritchie. As Secretary of State, Ritchie was a strong advocate for overseas and military voters.

2014 Post Election Survey Results Released - New Interactive Online Format

Highlights Reveal Ongoing Challenges in Overseas Voting

WASHINGTON D.C. – February 5, 2015 – Overseas Vote Foundation and U.S. Vote Foundation have released their 2014 Post-Election Survey results in a new online format. This interactive presentation allows users to compare Overseas Vote Foundation Post–Election Survey data across states.

[See the 2014 Post Election Survey Results]

U.S. Vote Foundation and FactCheck.org Collaborate to Provide Voters with Nonpartisan Political News

Flagship “My Voter Account” Application Offers Voters News from Award-Winning Fact-Checking Site

OCTOBER 9, 2014 - WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Vote Foundation (US Vote) and the nonpartisan site FactCheck.org have developed an alliance through which FactCheck.org will provide relevant, timely and accurate political information to voters who create an individual “My Voter Account” on the US Vote website. [View Video]

The project, supported by the Democracy Fund, was created to make it easy for voters to find unbiased, fact-checked news from within their private Voter Accounts. Voters can sort the news by topic, location or time frame. Once logged into their personal Voter Accounts, readers can access valuable information that may affect their voting choices.

Advocates Announce New "Can-I-Vote-Absentee" Widget

U.S. and Overseas Vote Foundation, Verified Voting, Rock the Vote and Common Cause unveil online tool to help military, overseas, college and others securely vote absentee

October 1, 2014 - Washington, DC— Although there’s more than a month until Election Day, for a large and growing population in the United States, early and absentee voting has already begun. Today, voting advocates, including Verified Voting, the U.S. and Overseas Vote Foundation, Rock the Vote and Common Cause launched a new online tool designed to help overseas, military, college and other potential absentee voters to secure, fill out, and mail back their ballots for the November mid-term election.

“Absentee voting in midterm elections is on the rise, which shouldn’t be surprising: Americans lead busy, complex lives,” said Susan Dzieduszycka-Suinat, President and CEO of the U.S. and Overseas Vote Foundation and creator of the “Can I Vote Absentee?” widget. “Millions of voters, including overseas and military voters, working parents, professionals who travel or can’t leave work, students, the disabled and the elderly need alternatives to the traditional method of going to a polling place to cast a ballot. Our new online widget can help voting organizations get the word out.”

U.S. Vote Foundation and Overseas Vote Foundation Launch Election Official Directory Application Programming Interface

New API to Support Election Services Developers with Comprehensive Address and Contact Data for Every Local Election Jurisdiction

WASHINGTON, D.C – July 24, 2014 - U.S. Vote Foundation (US Vote) and Overseas Vote Foundation (OVF) today announced the Election Official Directory Application Programming Interface (EOD API), which allows any voter or election services organization to utilize the data in this comprehensive election jurisdiction database in their own application or on their own website.

The Election Official Directory (EOD) is a highly successful and proven directory application that OVF / US Vote pioneered ten years ago to facilitate overseas and military voter registration and absentee ballot request processing, which is carried out at the local election office level.