Proposed Collection; Comment Request, 41967-41968 [2020-15082]

Agencies

• DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
• Office of the Secretary

[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 134 (Monday, July 13, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 41967-41968]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-15082]


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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Office of the Secretary

[Docket ID: DoD-2020-OS-0066]


Proposed Collection; Comment Request

AGENCY: Federal Voting Assistance Program, Defense Department (DoD).

ACTION: Information collection notice.

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SUMMARY: In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the 
Federal Voting Assistance Program announces a proposed public 
information collection and seeks public comment on the provisions 
thereof. Comments are invited on: Whether the proposed collection of 
information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of 
the agency, including whether the information shall have practical 
utility; the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the 
proposed information collection; ways to enhance the quality, utility, 
and clarity of the information to be collected; and ways to minimize 
the burden of the information collection on respondents, including 
through the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of 
information technology.

DATES: Consideration will be given to all comments received by 
September 11, 2020.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by docket number and 
title, by any of the following methods:
    Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov. Follow the 
instructions for submitting comments.
    Mail: DoD cannot receive written comments at this time due to the 
COVID-19 pandemic. Comments should be sent electronically to the docket 
listed above.
    Instructions: All submissions received must include the agency 
name, docket number and title for this Federal Register document. The 
general policy for comments and other submissions from members of the 
public is to make these submissions available for public viewing on the 
internet at https://www.regulations.gov as they are received without 
change, including any personal identifiers or contact information.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To request more information on this 
proposed information collection or to obtain a copy of the proposal and 
associated collection instruments, please contact the Office of 
Information Management, DoD, at [email protected], ATTN Ms. Angela James, or call 571-372-7574.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Title; Associated Form; and Omb Number: Election Administration and 
Voting Survey (EAVS) Section B Data Standard (ESB Data Standard); OMB 
Control Number 0704-FVAP.
    Needs and Uses: The President of the United States designated the 
Secretary of Defense to administer the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens 
Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) As Modified by the Military and Overseas 
Voting Empowerment Act, 52 United States Code (U.S.C.) 20301. UOCAVA is 
the principal enabling statute that grants authority for the Department 
of Defense (DoD) to facilitate absentee voting amongst members of the 
Uniformed Services and Merchant Marine, their eligible family members, 
and all citizens residing outside the United States who are absent from 
the United States. The 1988 Executive Order (E.O.) 12642 names the 
Secretary of Defense as the ``Presidential designee'' for administering 
UOCAVA. In the Department of Defense Instruction (DoDI) 1000.04, 
Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP), the Secretary of Defense 
delegated UOCAVA-related responsibilities first to the Under Secretary 
of Defense for Personnel and Readiness (USD[P&R]), and then, in turn, 
to the FVAP Director. The DoDI 1000.04 also updates the policy and 
responsibilities for FVAP under E.O. 12642.
    The Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act of 2009 
enacted key reforms to the absentee voting process for military and 
overseas voters. These reforms include the transmission of balloting 
materials no later than 45 days prior to each federal election. 
Additionally, each state must offer military and overseas voters an 
opportunity to receive balloting materials electronically. Sections 52 
U.S.C. 20301 (b [6,11]) and 20308 (b [1]) require FVAP to provide a 
report to the President and the Congress on program effectiveness and 
conduct a statistical analysis on UOCAVA voter participation. These 
sections also state that FVAP shall work with the United States 
Election Assistance Commission (EAC) and the chief State election 
official of each State to develop standards for States to report data 
on the number of absentee ballots transmitted and received, and that 
FVAP is to store the data collected. In order to evaluate the MOVE 
Act's reforms and perform the actions prescribed in 52 U.S.C. 20301 (b 
[6,11]) and 20308 (b [1]), FVAP requires transaction-level data that 
can associate specific UOCAVA ballot business process transactions with 
the ultimate outcome on whether the ballot was received and accepted 
for counting in each Federal election.
    Affected Public: Individuals or Households.
    Annual Burden Hours: 69.
    Number of Respondents: 827.
    Responses per Respondent: 1.
    Annual Responses: 827.
    Average Burden per Response: 5 minutes.
    Frequency: Semi-Annually.
    To help better assist UOCAVA voters, FVAP and the Council of State 
Governments worked to refine a transformative new data schema called 
the Election Administration and Voting Survey (EAVS) Section B (ESB) 
Data Standard. The ESB Data Standard builds on other data 
standardization efforts and allows FVAP to analyze the three key parts 
of the voting process: (1) Ballot request; (2) ballot transmission; and 
(3) ballot return.
    The ESB Data Standard collects transactional data from the absentee 
voter's experience in the election process that, when aggregated, align 
to the post-election survey questions administered by the EAC's 
Administration and Voting Survey (EAVS) data specifically focused on 
administration of UOCAVA. To that

[[Page 41968]]

end, under FVAP's guidance, states now have the option of making 
transactional-level data on UOCAVA ballots available through the ESB 
Data Standard, and the Council of State Governments is assisting with 
securing standardized feeds of these transactional data from members of 
the Overseas Voting Initiative.
    This standard captures data from state databases, a process that 
has the advantage of more accurately assessing when ballot transactions 
occurred and whether ballot requests and returns were returned. The 
EAVS survey, as administered by the EAC, aggregates totals at the state 
and jurisdiction levels on ballot receipt and transmission time, but 
this blurs the effects experienced by voters into a single statewide 
estimate. Further, these data do not isolate how much timing and 
transmission type can influence a successful voter transaction in the 
process or contrast the impacts of these across two differing 
populations, the overseas citizen versus the active duty military 
voter. The ESB Data Standard is the first approach of its kind to 
analyze administrative data at the transactional level and attempt to 
identify drivers for UOCAVA voter success.
    FVAP intends to leverage the momentum created from the ESB Data 
Standard Analysis to secure greater levels of implementation across 
jurisdictions with major populations of UOCAVA voters. Doing so will 
drastically reduce the burden on jurisdictions from the EAVS Section B 
data collection to only collecting high level metrics as points of 
validation for the ESB Data Standard.

    Dated: July 8, 2020.
Aaron T. Siegel,
Alternate OSD Federal Register Liaison Officer, Department of Defense.
[FR Doc. 2020-15082 Filed 7-10-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 5001-06-P