Dean Discusses Military Voting at International Conference

USA Dean Discusses Military Voting at International Conference
Dr. Alec Yasinsac Seeks to Improve Voting Systems

University of South Alabama School of Computer and Information Sciences Dean Dr. Alec Yasinsac participated in the Overseas and Military Voting Summit 2010 recently held in Munich, Germany.

Summit 2010 hosted presentations from 60 experts, administrators and thought leaders in both the electoral and overseas communities, including: Secretaries of State, the heads of the Federal Voting Assistance Program and the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, the chief voting action officer of the U.S. Department of State, representatives of every branch of the military, technologists, innovators, election integrity activists, leading elections researchers from major U.S. and international universities, nonprofit election rights advocacy groups, leaders of the American community overseas, and more.

Participants and summit attendees exchanged ideas on the question of Internet voting and the full range of implications of the Military and Overseas Voters Empowerment Act, the most important piece of election reform legislation for the overseas community since the 1989 passage of the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, the law that guaranteed the right to vote to Americans living overseas.

Yasinsac participated in two panels and chaired one group on the topic, “Voting at the Front Line: Focus on the Military Voter.”

“We are at a critical juncture in the struggle to elevate military members to ‘first-class voter’ status and the summit is a step in the right direction,” Yasinsac said. “For years, the very military support structure that trains, assigns, and supports military members in remote areas has been handcuffed in their attempts to help military members and their families to vote. Hopefully, these unnecessary barriers are about to fall.”