On Wednesday, October 28, President Obama signed the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act into law, a bipartisan piece of legislation that will help U.S. troops cast ballots from overseas. U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), Chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, Ranking Member Robert Bennett (R-UT), and original co-sponsors Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) and Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) led this effort to remove the barriers that too often disenfranchise military men and women.

Less than a week before, on October 23, the full Senate gave its final approval to language of the MOVE Act when it was attached to the National Defense Authorization Act (Public Law 111-84). A total of 59 Senators had agreed to cosponsor the legislation before it was incorporated into the Department of Defense authorization bill. The measure cleared the Senate on a 68-29 vote.

The MOVE ACT will make it easier for absentee military troops and other overseas voters to register and vote, and speed transmission to ensure their ballots arrive in time to be counted. These voters have historically faced a number of barriers to voting and have lower rates of registration and voter turnout than voters living in the U.S. At a hearing on May 13th, Rules Committee Chairman Charles E. Schumer released a Congressional Research Service survey showing that, in some states, over 25% of the ballots requested by troops stationed overseas went uncounted in the 2008 elections. The legislation requires the use of electronic transmission methods to help voters obtain voting material more quickly and requires states to send out ballots to these voters not less than 45 days before an election