August EASE Grant Announcement
August 28, 2023 – Alexandria, VA – The Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) is pleased to announce it has awarded grant money to state and local election offices supporting military members, their families, and U.S. citizens overseas. The Effective Absentee Systems for Elections (EASE) grants have the goal of increasing the percentage of ballots successfully returned by voters covered by the FVAP administered Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA).
FVAP awarded more than twelve million dollars in grant funding directly to 17 states and localities administering elections to reduce failure rates for UOCAVA voters and establish and maintain a pipeline of ideas, techniques, and best practices for election officials nationwide as they serve these voters. The grantees will use the funds to establish and operate successful, sustainable, and affordable electronic tools to improve the electronic transmission of outbound (blank) ballots sent from election offices to voters, track outbound mailed ballots, and encourage the use of digital signature verification like the Department of Defense Common Access Card on election documents.
The following States, county and county consortiums have been awarded EASE Grants:
States
Arizona ($2,065,645.00)
Arkansas ($609,840.00)
Delaware ($268,830.00)
Georgia ($352,000.00)
Illinois ($1,659,840.00)
New Jersey ($410,000.00)
New York ($806,000.00)
North Carolina ($77,000.00)
North Dakota ($462,135.00)
Rhode Island ($30,000.00)
Vermont ($645,655.00)
Washington, D.C. ($241,000.00)
West Virginia ($520,000.00)
Counties:
Marion County, Indiana ($329,239.50)
Alachua County, Florida ($103,647.00)
County Consortiums:
Lake County, Ohio received $1,963,101.00 on behalf of the Ohio Consortium of Counties including Butler, Clark, Fairfield, Franklin, Hamilton, Holmes, Huron, Jefferson, Lake, Lucas, Madison, Mahoning, Miami, Perry, Wayne, and Wood Counties
Travis County, Texas received $1,765,000.00 on behalf of the Texas Consortium of Counties including Angelina, Bosque, Bowie, Brazoria, El Paso, Burleson, Freestone, Harris, Kaufman, Galveston, Lee, Palo Pinto, Parker, Webb, Travis, Val Verde, Washington, Bastrop, Taylor, Throckmorton, Williamson, and Polk Counties
The Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for the EASE grant program was posted on grants.gov under H982102310001 on February 8, 2023, and closed on April 7, 2023. The EASE research grant program awarded a total of $12,308,932.50
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If you'd like more information on the Federal Voting Assistance Program or need help with the absentee voting process, please visit FVAP.gov; call FVAP at 1-800-438-VOTE or DSN at (425) 1584 (CONUS)/(312) 425-1584 (OCONUS); or email vote@fvap.gov. Service members: Remember, you also can contact your unit or installation voting assistance officers. Don't forget to "like" us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/DoDFVAP and follow @FVAP on Twitter and @fvapgov on Instagram.
