Announcement Questions Received.docx

Announcement Questions Received

1. Can tribal nations apply for a grant?

2. Can the U.S. Territories apply for a grant?

Answer: Yes, The territories are defined as “states” by the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) and tribal nations are typically involved in carrying out elections within their territories.

The only limiter is that the grant funds should be used primarily to enhance the absentee voting process for those citizens covered by the UOCAVA (as opposed to local absentee voters), and primarily for elections for federal offices.

3. Will the total award be $30M or potentially $20M?

Answer: The award ceiling for this is totaling $20M.

4. If a state is currently using a platform for our UOCAVA voters. Clarify if the FVAP can be used to cover costs of the current platform, or if it must be used to address new services and cannot be used as a supplemental?

Answer: There should be no restriction for the grants paying for an existing system. So the grant could cover costs of the current platform.

5. Can upgrades, i.e for CAC for security measures be covered for an existing system? Are any pain points or functionality enhancements you have heard of or that you would recommend?

Answer: All of the things mentioned (cosmetic upgrades for functionality, usability, look and feel; implementing CAC cards and other increased security measures) would be eligible for grants funding as long as there is no aspect of electronic ballot return.

We are not sure how much more information we have available to provide besides what is in the grants documents. Prospective applicants can look at reports written by FVAP or The Council of State Governments (CSG).

6. · NOTE: Grant funds cannot be used for the electronic return of completed ballots to election offices. Does this mean we could not use the funds for an automatic date stamper or Ballotrax?

Answer: This should be ok. It seems like this system would be used to prepare the voted ballot for sending through a separate system.

As long as the system is not used to actually transmit the voted ballot it should be eligible for funding.