One-third of all U.S. states do not provide enough time to vote for military personnel stationed overseas and as many as half of all states need to improve their absentee voting process to ensure that the votes of servicemen and women abroad will be counted, according to a report from the Pew Center on the States released today. The report, titled "No Time to Vote: Challenges Facing America's Overseas Military Voters," is the first-ever detailed public analysis of states' voting systems for military personnel stationed overseas.

Pew undertook this state-by-state research in response to widespread concerns about challenges facing military voters abroad. Only one-third of the estimated one million ballots distributed to military and overseas voters in 2006 were actually cast or counted, according to the federal Election Assistance Commission. Figures for the 2008 election are not yet available. An estimated six million military and overseas civilian voters have the right to cast absentee ballots in America's federal elections. No Time to Vote was developed by the Pew Center on the States' Make Voting Work initiative, which seeks to foster an election system that achieves the highest standards of accuracy, convenience, efficiency and security.

For each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, researchers calculated the amount of time it takes overseas military voters and election officials to complete each step of the absentee voting process. The researchers then determined if all of the steps could be completed in time for each state's election deadlines and assessed whether overseas military voters have enough time to vote.

The report found that:

• The District of Columbia and 16 states do not provide enough time to vote for military personnel stationed overseas. These states send out absentee ballots after the date necessary for military voters to meet all required deadlines. The states are Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Georgia, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, New York, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.
• Three states are "at risk" for not allowing military personnel overseas enough time to vote. These states provide just five or less additional days beyond the number necessary to complete the voting process. With such a limited cushion, minimal unanticipated delays at any stage of the process -- due to mail delivery or the actions of election offices or voters -- will result in voters from these states being less likely to return their completed ballots in time to be counted. These states are Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Vermont.