U.S. Vote Foundation Impact Statement

A Legacy of Firsts

US Vote is a trailblazer. It is the only nonpartisan, nonprofit organization to offer voter services and information for domestic, military, and overseas voters all in one place. US Vote takes a voter-centric approach to its work, keeping the voters top of mind in every strategic decision. Here are a few of US Vote’s “firsts”:

  • First automated domestic voter registration and absentee ballot request to produce customized, state-specific form output across all states
  • First to develop and license Election Official Directory
  • First to develop and offer the Voter Account service, creating personal democracy dashboards for individual voters
  • First user-friendly, wizard-driven online system for overseas and military Federal Post Card Application (FPCA) voter registration and ballot requests
  • First to create an online “vote-print-mail" Federal Write-in Absentee Ballot (FWAB) with dynamic, integrated candidate lists for overseas and military voters
  • First voter help desk for overseas and military voters
  • First to license customized overseas and military voter websites for states and other organizations
  • First overseas and military absentee ballot return shipping program, “Express Your Vote" – a collaboration with FedEx in 94 countries
  • First Youth Vote Overseas outreach program

 

A Wide-Ranging Impact

From the time it launched its first voter service until now, US Vote has played a key role in many of the nation’s core voting initiatives and highest-profile organizations. Here is a snapshot of the organization’s impact:

Domestic and Overseas Voter Information Services

  • US Vote is on track to serve 6 million voters in the 2024 General Election Year.
  • 3.3 million voters were directly served through the US Vote and Overseas Vote websites during the 2020 election cycle.
  • On Election Day 2020: US Vote had more than 11 million pageviews, and more than 72,000 voters used its services.
  • Overall, traffic to US Vote’s website increased by approximately 80 percent during 2020 as compared to 2016, evidence of the organization’s increasing visibility among voters.
  • During 2020, Overseas Vote had more than 600,000 unique site visits, and more than 11,000 voters accessed the site on Election Day 2020 alone.
  • In 2017, US Vote launched the LOCelections initiative to make it easy for voters to find the dates and deadlines for their next local election, ultimately resulting in higher voter turnout and more representative local elections.

Civic Data and Systems Licensing

  • US Vote served an estimated 25 million additional voters through its Civic Data API program used by the most influential voter outreach organizations in the U.S. to provide voters with access to its dates, deadlines, eligibility, and election official contact information.
  • US Vote has licensed its Civic Data to 47 voter, academic, and government organizations, including the United States Postal Service, the National Association of Secretaries of State, the League of Women Voters, Vote.org, VoteAmerica, MyMove, Rock the Vote, the Brennan Center for Justice, and many more.
  • 1.4 million voters maintain a Voter Account on the US Vote system, putting customized voter information at their fingertips.
  • As of 2020, US Vote’s Hosted Systems Solutions (HSS) program served 24 licensees with HHS systems, including eight states as well as a variety of civic organizations, offering them an integrated suite of voter services.

Influence

  • US Vote's initiative, Overseas Vote, maintains a position of demonstrated leadership in the nongovernmental implementation of the Uniformed and Overseas Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) and the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act.
  • US Vote has developed an extensive voter survey research program with ten published post-election voter studies. It has submitted its research to the Presidential Commission on Election Administration.
  • The organization participated on the project team for Federal Voting Assistance Program-sponsored “Overseas Citizens Count" together with Armed Forces Services Corporation, LexisNexis Special Services, Inc., and Grant Thornton.
  • US Vote participated on the project team for U.S. Election Assistance Commission’s “UOCAVA Voters and the Electronic Transmission of Voting Materials in Four States."
  • US Vote conducted “End-to-End Verifiable Internet Voting: Specification and Feasibility Assessment Study," with Galois, Inc., sponsored by The Democracy Fund.
  • US Vote organized and produced nine annual Voting and Elections Summit conferences, bringing together 150-200 voting experts and stakeholders together at each conference to move the field forward.
  • The organization’s president and CEO, Susan Dzieduszycka-Suinat, is a renowned voting expert who has testified before the U.S. Election Assistance Commission and the Committee on House Administration.

 

Our History

For nearly two decades, U.S. Vote Foundation (US Vote) has consistently demonstrated its unwavering commitment to voter-centric civic technology innovation. Founded as “Overseas Vote Foundation,” the organization spearheaded civic tech automation of overseas and military absentee voting processes. While serving all voter types, US Vote continues its commitment to this voting population through its Overseas Vote initiative.

Through five presidential elections and countless state and local elections, US Vote and Overseas Vote have together informed and assisted tens of millions of voters – domestic, overseas, and military – figure out the how, where, and when of voting.

Voting in the United States is a complex web of laws and regulations that differ across all 50 states, and even within individual states. There are different deadlines for voter registration, diverse and constantly changing voter ID requirements, and uneven standards for voting access – even the voting process itself can differ dramatically among states. With more than 7,500 local election offices across the country and hundreds of new voting-related laws and regulations passed every year at the state and local level, the resulting complexity means that, from the voter’s perspective, there is simply no single, standardized way to vote.


The processes that helped make the 2020 general election the safest and most successful election in U.S. history were online ballot requests; online access to dates, deadlines, and eligibility information; and available local election official contact information – all innovative services that were pioneered on the US Vote and Overseas Vote sites.

 

Always Moving Forward

US Vote and Overseas Vote continue to break new ground in civic data and voter information services. The organization’s exciting future initiatives – among them an expansion of the LOCelections program and the launch of the innovative Voter Account mobile app – will bring the organization even closer to realizing its motto: Every Citizen Is a Voter.