Voting tool gets thumbs up from DOD

  • Published
  • By Wayne Amann
  • Air Force ISR Agency Public Affairs
JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO - LACKLAND, Texas (AFNS) --  As this presidential election year unfolds, America's voting process will get plenty of attention.

Thanks to two members of the Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency headquarters, sorting through the how-tos of exercising this American right is at the fingertips of everyone in the Defense Department.

Pierre Terry and Laura Gonzalez, both voting assistance officers with the AFISRA Logistics, Installation and Mission Support Directorate here, condensed an array of voting information into a unit training pamphlet. This pamphlet was identified as a best practice during a recent inspection, then adopted by the DOD for maximum voter exposure.

"That ranks pretty high on my awesome meter," Terry said of the DOD providing worldwide access to the tri-fold document via an internal website. "It's nice to know the product is benefitting the Federal Voting Assistance Program."

The FVAP Voting Guide itself is hundreds of pages long. Terry and Gonzalez collaborated to compress key information into a user-friendly tool, providing the right amount of information up front and pointing the way to where voters can go for more details.

It took the duo about three weeks from conception to completion to ensure the brochure was easy to read and understand, and that it visually reinforced the 'awareness' message.

"The difficult part was narrowing down the information and deciding what to include," Gonzalez said. "The pamphlet assists DOD family members by listing important websites on how to register to vote and absentee voting."

Terry and Gonzalez have served as their directorate's voting assistance officers since 2007.

In even numbered years, the DOD mandates voter training is given to all personnel. So, in 2008, they designed an election brochure that answered questions about the election process, voter registration requirements, early voting and more.

They were surprised by the number of people who wanted their simple hand-out.

"That's when it occurred to me," Terry said. "It would be easier for us to meet this objective if we had a standard process in place, something people could refer back to at their convenience."

Thus, what started as a local educational tool to capture the attention of new directorate members evolved into a standardized voting training aid throughout the DOD.

The pamphlet, titled "It's Your Future, Vote ... How Hard Was That?" has been in circulation at AFISRA since January 2011. The Air Force's voting action officer distributed it throughout the Air Force prior to its availability DOD-wide.

"What an honor," Gonzalez said. "Knowing our pamphlet will help people throughout DOD is a wonderful feeling. Both of us are proud we've contributed to the success of the FVAP. Voting is a privilege. We definitely want everyone to feel the same."