Call to Action: Pentagon is blocking overseas voters

[Iceburg]

Blogging buddies -- we should be flooding the mainstream media outlets (MSNBC< CNN, washington post etc) with emails urging them to cover (before it's too late) the story about the pentagon disenfranchising the overseas voters (including the soldiers they claim to "support")
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Pentagon blocks US expats in France from election register

http://www.expatica.com/source/site_article.asp?subchannel_id=58&story_id=12081&name=Pentagon+blocks+US+expats+inFrance+from+election+register

21 September 2004

AMSTERDAM — American expats trying to register to vote in the November US presidential election have been frustrated following a move by the Pentagon to restrict access to some of its websites.

Customers of internet service providers (ISPs) in at least 25 countries — including Wanadoo in France and Telefonica in Spain — have been denied access to the site of the Federal Voting Assistance Program (www.fvap.gov), the International Herald Tribune reported.

The Pentagon said it blocked access to its sites from a number of ISPs worldwide to protect itself from hackers.

The Federal Voting Assistance Program is designed to help military and civilian voters abroad. It is run by the US Defense Department.

Expats in many countries have been frustrated as the deadline for registering to vote in the 2 November election nears.

Brett Rierson, co-founder of OverseasVote.com, a pro-Democratic site that provides voting instructions, told the IHT he had been bombarded with complaints from users who cannot enter the government site.

Rierson's organisation, which has been monitoring the restrictions, found that at least 25 ISPs had been blocked.

He said he had received complaints since February, but as of 23 August, "the number of emails per day have expanded drastically," he said.

"Eighty percent of complaints have come in the past two weeks alone, and they come from countries that have the largest populations of overseas Americans."

Diana Kerry, sister of presidential candidate John Kerry and chair of Americans Overseas for Kerry-Edwards, which is campaigning for a Democrat vote among expat voters, said she was "outraged" at the Pentagon restrictions.

"The deadline for filing voter registration applications is less than a month away, and we learned only today that the Pentagon has been engaged in a growing practice of denying vital voter registration information to US voters over the past several months," she said.

[the Kelly Gang]

1. oh God, is their no end to f***** deceit

[DanGough]

2. expat vote rigging

This is amazing and scary. I will post on my blog and pass the word. I have a brother and his family living on the continent. Will let him know directly.

[Pluvious]

3. What about other government sites ?

I noticed they said:

The Pentagon declined to comment when asked by the IHT if other government sites had been blocked.

If they are honestly trying to prevent hackers (like this would actually work), then other types of government sites would be ALSO blocked, no ?

Anyone heard or can confirm that ?

[myrna minx]

4. A kick for our expat friends...

:kick:

[wysi]

5. I can...

... still access the site from work (I work at a University in New Zealand). I'm guessing most people would be able to use cyber-cafes and such for access. Perhaps a list of 'work-arounds' could be generated?

[NVMojo]

6. the idiot must be scared

to be going through this much trouble to disenfranchise more Americans. When will this torture be over!!!!!????

[Aznar]

7. need troops at www.shortnews.com

need troops at www.shortnews.com believe me it's worth it if you don't believe me take a look at the posts from a guy called YARE