2014 Ethnographies and Focus Groups

Subject line: Military family members: DoD research study on voting needs you

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Voting is one of your most fundamental rights, and the Department of Defense (DoD) wants to ensure all family members of active duty service personnel are able to exercise that right. To this end, we invite you to share your absentee voting experiences during the 2012 election. If you voted absentee in 2012 or attempted to vote, we need to hear from you. You don’t need any special knowledge or expertise about the voting process; we just want to hear about your own experience. Please see details below, and know that your perspective is critical to this mission.

DoD’s Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) randomly selected you to participate in an important research effort examining the voting process among military personnel and their families. As you may know, FVAP works to ensure Uniformed Services personnel, their families and overseas citizens have the knowledge and resources necessary to successfully vote. Your experiences with the absentee voting process during the 2012 election are critical for FVAP to focus its future efforts on the tools and services you find most helpful in exercising your right to vote.

We hope you will participate in a one-time group session to discuss your voting experiences. Your participation is completely voluntary and responses will remain confidential and will be used only for the purposes of this research.

Lake Research Partners is working on behalf of FVAP in this research effort. Researchers from Lake Research Partners will conduct these sessions on [INSTALLATION, DATE, TIME].

If you meet the following criteria listed below and are willing and available to participate in this important study, we want to hear from you. Please reply to this email with your best contact information (email and phone number) ONLY if you can answer YES to the following:

1. I am not an active duty member of the U.S. military.

2. I live with a family member who is an active duty member of the U.S. military.

3. I voted or attempted to vote with an absentee ballot in the 2012 U.S. election.

[NON-VOTERS ONLY: I did NOT vote in the 2012 U.S. election.]

We want to learn from you and your voting experiences so we can help ensure every family member of the Armed Services can exercise his or her right to vote. Your perspective is critical to the success of our voting assistance efforts, and we hope you will take the time to participate in this important study.

If you have any questions regarding this research effort, please email vote@fvap.gov or speak with a Federal Voting Assistance Center representative at 800-438-8683 (DSN: 425-1584) between the hours of 0900 and 1700 EDT.

Thank you in advance for your participation in this important research effort.

Matthew D. Boehmer

Director

Federal Voting Assistance Program