{"id":678,"date":"2013-07-01T09:40:54","date_gmt":"2013-07-01T13:40:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.wabash.edu\/littlegiants-bigresults\/?p=678"},"modified":"2025-07-08T19:32:53","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T19:32:53","slug":"carter-adams-15-the-military-voter-protection-mvp-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/plastics\/2013\/07\/01\/carter-adams-15-the-military-voter-protection-mvp-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Carter Adams ’15: The Military Voter Protection (MVP) Project"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Carter Adams ’15:\u00a0 This summer, I am out in Washington, DC working for the Military Voter Protection Project (MVP Project). \u00a0The MVP Project is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the voting rights of military personnel and their voting-eligible dependents.\u00a0 It was started in 2010 by Wabash grad Eric Eversole \u201994.\u00a0 Eric is a former U.S. Navy JAG officer and then went on to work for the Voting Section of the Department of Justice.<\/p>\n

The MVP Project\u2019s goal is to protect the voting rights of military voters.\u00a0 Military voting has not been an issue in the forefront or one people usually consider.\u00a0 However, military voters are one the most disenfranchised groups in the electorate.\u00a0 Many factors contribute to this but consider the difficulty of registering to vote, applying for absentee ballot, receiving it, filling it out, returning it on time, and not messing it up for it to be counted\u2026then add being in warzone halfway around the world.\u00a0 The aim of the MVP Project is to improve the current electoral system that seems to be disenfranchising America\u2019s military.<\/p>\n

This is the fourth week on my internship and I will be here until the beginning of August.\u00a0 In my first week it is safe to say I was bombarded by every piece of legislation passed that had anything to do with military voting.\u00a0 From the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act to the National Voter Registration Act to the Military and Overseas Empowerment Act, you name it; I have read and learned about it.\u00a0 It has definitely been a quick learning curve.\u00a0 And since, my internship has involved applying this knowledge to drafting testimony for congressional committee hearings and papers to be published.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>There have been a lot of exciting things happening around the MVP Project this summer.\u00a0 With a large military population, Virginia and their 2013 election has been our focus, helping us develop the Heroes Vote Initiative, a new organization started by the MVP Project. Working alongside the Virginia State Board of Elections, the Heroes Vote Initiative and our Boots and Ballots Campaign will help put on on-base registration drives throughout the state.\u00a0 With registering alone being one of the largest obstacles for many military voters, these military voter registration drives we are organizing will aid military voting participation.\u00a0 Next month, we are having a kickoff event for our Boots and Ballots Campaign in Richmond, VA, where Bob McDonnell, the Virginia governor, is going to speak.<\/p>\n

One of the highlights of my internship so far was having a breakfast meeting with Jason Kander, the Missouri Secretary of State, and his chief of staff, Abe Rakov.\u00a0 Mr. Kander is the youngest elected statewide official in the U.S. \u00a0He is also a former Army Captain, so he has personally experienced the issues the MVP Project fights for.<\/p>\n

I am currently going through Officer Candidate School for the United States Marine Corps. I spent last summer in Quantico, VA receiving training and will return next summer.\u00a0 And upon graduation, if I make it through the program, I would be commissioned as a 2nd<\/sup> Lieutenant in the Marine Corps.\u00a0 Thus, the MVP Project fights for issues that I care deeply about and have a great deal of interest in and I am so thankful to Wabash and Career Services for connecting me to this internship.\u00a0 I would like to also thank the Small Business Fund for giving me the opportunity to live out here and work for a cause that is tremendously important.\u00a0 Personally, I would like to thank Laurene, whom I work directly with, and Eric for working tirelessly for the MVP Project and being so great to me here in the nation\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carter Adams ’15:\u00a0 This summer, I am out in Washington, DC working for the Military Voter Protection Project (MVP Project). \u00a0The MVP Project is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the voting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-internships","category-uncategorized"],"w_featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/plastics\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2013\/07\/Carter-Adams-7-1-13-1024x768.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/plastics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/plastics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/plastics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/plastics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/plastics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/plastics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":982,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/plastics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678\/revisions\/982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/plastics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/plastics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/plastics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}