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Ranked choice voting protects military and overseas voters

By September 15, 2025No Comments

| Veterans for All Voters & We The Veterans | FairVote |

Active-duty military members, as well as other overseas voters, often struggle to participate in runoff elections due to the need to cast a second ballot. Multiple mailings increase the risk that a ballot is not counted due to delivery delays. Deployments and reassignments can occur on short notice, complicating the process of receiving and returning one ballot, let alone two.

A simple, proven solution

Six states — Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina — provide a ranked ballot to UOCAVA (Uniformed Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act) voters at the same time the voters receive their standard absentee ballot for the regular election. Both ballots list all of the candidates running. UOCAVA voters indicate their top choice on the standard ballot, and can then rank the candidates in order of preference on the ranked ballot.

Using ranked choice ballots is a simple, proven solution that protects the voting rights of military and overseas voters.

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