Pentagon Restricts Overseas Voters

George Bush, are you blocking my IP again?

In another obvious attempt to restrict voting as much as possible, the Bush Administration is trying a new trick.

Americans abroad, whose votes could be crucial if the Nov. 2 presidential election proves close, are being denied access to a U.S. Department of Defense Web site designed to make it easier for them to cast absentee ballots. The problem concerns blocks placed on access to the Web site of the Federal Voting Assistance Program, a Defense Department division to help expatriate American voters, including servicemen and women. The site's address is www.fvap.gov

Entire "suspect" countries may be blocked, making absentee voting difficult, if not impossible, for large segments of the overseas population.

"It has the potential to disenfranchise anyone who does not live next to a U.S. Embassy," Rierson said in a telephone interview. But he also noted that the Democratic Party has set up the site www.overseasvote2004.com, where even people using blocked ISPs can still register.

While the blocking is explained as an attempt to prevent "hacking", the blocked list makes no sense, unless it is intended to restrict anti-Bush votes.

Rierson said the 27 ISPs known to have been blocked included Yahoo Broadband in Japan, Wanadoo in France, and those of Telefonica in Spain and China Telecom, among others.

The entire article is available at the Common Dreams Newscenter.