According the Department of Defense’s Office of Military Voting Assistance it takes as long as 3 weeks for a ballot to be delivered home from overseas.  Many ballots are not counted for the simple reason that they are late.
 
The PEW Center for States Report “No time to Vote” found that 25 states were deficient in their methods for dealing with overseas military voters.  But changing 25 state laws is difficult, and some changes may involve forcing a state to change the date on which a state holds its primary election.  Speeding the delivery of military ballots from overseas can be done more quickly than changing state laws, and will also ensure that voters can cast their ballots closer to the date of the election, when voter interest is highest, and when undecided voters have had a chance to observe more of the campaign, including late-in-the-campaign debates.

There are four potential solutions for ensuring votes are returned in time and counted.  We believe that express mail delivery is by far the best.  Here are the four possible solutions:

1. Faxing ballots:
     
Defect: This sacrifices secrecy of the ballot.  Military voters deserve the right to a secret ballot.

2. Allowing election officials to accept ballots received after the close of polls on Election Day:

Defect: Election officials may not be able to guarantee the validity and integrity of a postmark from overseas, so there is potential for fraud, especially in a close election where the day after an election an overseas voter or group of voters may realize that a few extra votes could make a big difference.

The post-election deadline solution could become a precedent and a slippery slope for non-military ballots where postmark security is far from certain.

Allowing ballots to be received after the close of the polls on Election Day may also delay a determination of the outcome of an election.

3. Voting on a Pentagon computer server or using the Internet or other electronic ballot transmission
methods:

Defect: There is a risk of hacking from outside sources (a foreign power or other entity), from inside sources (one or more corrupt, blackmailed or ideologically motivated insiders) or worst of all from collaboration between inside and outside sources.  A recent National Institute of Standards
and Technology (NIST) study raises serious concerns about the integrity and security of Internet voting.

Future improvements in technology might reduce the risk of hacking but it is difficult to convince all of the public that any system absolutely cannot be hacked. The key to the legitimacy of an election is that virtually all voters accept that the election was run honestly.   Voter confidence is a critical component of an election system.

4. The express mail solution:
 
We believe the best solution for right now is to establish a federally funded express mail delivery system for completed ballots. In 2009 military voters needed to mail their ballots 3 weeks before the election to ensure that they were delivered on time.  An express mail delivery system established by federal law could get ballots delivered in 4 days.  Military voters could deposit their ballot by Friday before the general election and have the ballot delivered to their local election office by the close of polls on Election Day.