The Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) works to make sure military service members and Americans overseas are able to vote, and that their votes are counted. Some states require ballots to be submitted via fax, so FVAP offers a free email-to-fax service. However, during presidential elections, their system was getting overwhelmed by the number of people trying to use it.

FVAP reached out to 18F to see if we could help them process this higher volume securely and efficiently. Unfortunately, two project members were unexpectedly laid off while the team was beginning its research. Even if others are brought on to continue the work, we did not have enough time to complete user interviews or technical discovery to set the project up for success.