UOCAVA
The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, requiring ballots to reach military and overseas voters 45 days before a federal election.
UOCAVA's 45-day advance-ballot rule sat at the centre of a South Carolina Justice Department consent agreement reached by 20 July 2026, after the state's own deadline had already passed on 27 June.
Last refreshed: 26 July 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Timeline for UOCAVA
Set the 45-day ballot-mailing deadline the agreement addresses
US Midterms 2026: The deadline that beat the vacancyMentioned in: SC sets special primary for 11 August
US Midterms 2026Background
Signed into law in 1986, UOCAVA is the only federal statute devoted specifically to voting access for members of the uniformed services and other overseas citizens. It was amended in 2009 by the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act, part of that year's National Defense Authorization Act, which set the 45-day advance-ballot-transmission requirement and tightened states' registration and absentee-ballot procedures for these voters.
Justice Department guidance confirms the 45-day rule reaches primary, general, special and runoff federal elections alike, with no blanket short-notice carve-out for special elections. A state that cannot meet the Deadline may seek an undue-hardship waiver from the Secretary of Defense under 52 U.S.c. § 20302(g).
South Carolina's compressed 2026 special-Senate calendar tested that machinery directly: working backward from the filing dates, the 45-day Deadline for the 11 August primary fell on 27 June and the Deadline for the 25 August runoff fell on 11 July, both before Lindsey Graham's death created the vacancy at all . The Justice Department and the state negotiated a consent agreement rather than litigate the resulting gap .
