On July 15, the U.S. Senate Rules Committee unanimously passed S.1415, a bill to make it easier for overseas voters to vote. The bill requires that states mail ballots to overseas absentee ballots no later than 45 days before the election. It also requires states to let such voters request a ballot electronically. It countermands any state law that requires an overseas absentee ballot to be notarized.

S.1415 has 21 Senator sponsors or co-sponsors, including 5 Republicans. The contents of the bill will probably be amended into the Department of Defense funding bill later this month. Thanks to ElectionLawBlog for this news. The bill can be read at http://thomas.loc.gov, although links don’t work. That site has a window in which the bill number can be typed, which takes one to the bill.