Many Active-Duty Service Voters Don't Have to Show ID

A substantial number of men and women on active duty in the armed forces are not required to show any identification to vote in elections.

According to a Department of Defense official who spoke to Newsmax, "42.3 % (528,328) of [those who are] registered Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act [UOCAVA] voters were active duty members of the Uniformed Service, a spouse, or a dependent family member."

In addition, the official said, "911,614 UOCAVA ballots were returned."

While almost one million registered voters voted through UOCAVA in 2020, active duty military, their eligible family members, and overseas voters only have to sign the affirmation on the form confirming the information is true, the DoD official said.

The defense official added: "Veterans are not covered under UOCAVA, unless they reside overseas."

"My tendency is to trust people in uniform," House Administration Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R.-Okla., told Newsmax. "But it probably is a matter worth looking into."

Under President Barack Obama, the introduction of the Military and Overseas Voting Empowerment Act (MOVE Act) was signed with the hope of making voting easier for overseas active-duty members.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., commented on the bill when it was signed into law in 2010, saying, "It is the least we can do for our troops to make sure their votes get counted when they are serving overseas."

The MOVE Act requires that states must use technology to transmit election materials to members of the military and overseas duty members. These electronically transmitted
ballots make it easier for those overseas to vote, but verification of crucial aspects of the voting process are left out.

For example, in Alabama, the state does not vet the systems in which these votes are transmitted.

As time progressed, ballots began being returned electronically at the discretion of the voters and states. The electronic ballots to be returned only require signatures from two witnesses without the requirement of being notarized.

Some may see a problem with not requiring voter ID for these service members. Former Alabama State Rep. Perry Hooper, Jr., sees it as "an [in]secure way of voting".

The number of voters using UOCAVA to vote skyrocketed in key states between 2016 and 2020.

In Alabama in 2016, 1,478 residents voted using UOCAVA, with that number jumping to roughly 5,091 in 2020.

In Florida, 2016 saw around 50,036 voters have UOCAVA ballots accepted, with that number more than doubling to around 115,000 in 2020.

In California the jump was even greater, going from around 17,984 in 2016 to 95,872 in 2020.

In Arizona, where Biden’s margin of victory was 10,457 votes in 2020, there was a jump in UOCAVA ballots from around 4,400 voters in 2016 to 18,435 in ‘20.

In Wisconsin, won by Joe Biden by 20,682 in 2020, the jump between ‘16 and ‘20 was 2,690 to 13,531.

Still another key state, Pennsylvania saw a jump in the same timeframe from 7,788 to 25,589.

In Georgia, whose electoral votes were among the most heatedly contested with Biden edging out victory over Trump by 11,779 votes, there was an increase of 5,203 to 18,475 UOCAVA voters.

Michigan, also fiercely disputed, saw an increase from 5,592 to 21,464 in that same time-frame.

Nationwide, voters using UOCAVA nearly quadrupled from 252,212 in 2016 to a staggering approximation of approximately 900,000 in the 2020 Presidential election.

The vast majority of these voters through UOCAVA did not need Identification to vote. Paul Harris, a Maricopa County resident in Arizona, was tasked with overseeing UOCAVA ballots in the Maricopa Audit in 2022.

In an Arizona senate session in 2022, he pointed out some suspicious findings, including ballots that did not match the size of the ones sent out.

"The numbers were apparently 1,600 UOCAVA ballots that came back in the most significant election in our lifetime," he told the hearing attendees in 2022, "In 2020 the numbers were close to 9,600 ballots that came back. And I will tell you as an eyewitness, 95% … all went towards one candidate."

"I'm not willing to say there's something untoward here on the basis of increased participation," Cole said, "But it's worth looking at for sure."

Republicans are now faced with the challenge of investigating such findings, which many may believe could alter outcomes of crucial elections.

Christopher Savino is a rising senior at Rutgers University in New Jersey and a summer intern at Newsmax's Washington, D.C., bureau.