[extropy-chat] If the nonUS citizens voted in Nov 2 elections...

Amara Graps amara at amara.com
Mon Sep 27 16:00:33 UTC 2004


Giu1i0 Pri5c0 :

>http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/09/26/2217230&tid=226&tid=103&tid=219

>Europe's famous Organisation for Security and
>Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) will now be monitoring the U.S.
>elections.


This is good news. First Bush wanted to change the date of the
elections, then I read news that voting information for US citizens
living abroad is being restricted. I am very skeptical now that the US
Federal government cares about having a fair election. But we'll see.

With regard to the second news, I would like more information.
The International Herald Tribune published an article a week ago
that said the following:

--------------------------------------------------------

http://www.iht.com/articles/539597.html

Pentagon blocks site for voters outside U.S.
 
Jennifer Joan Lee IHT
	Monday, September 20, 2004

PARIS
In a decision that could affect Americans abroad who are not yet
registered to vote in the Nov. 2 presidential election, the Pentagon
has begun restricting international access to the official Web site
intended to help overseas absentee voters cast ballots.

According to overseas-voter advocates who have been monitoring the
situation, Internet service providers in at least 25 countries -
including Yahoo Broadband in Japan, Wanadoo in France, BT Yahoo
Broadband in Britain and Telefónica in Spain - have been denied access
to the site of the Federal Voting Assistance Program, apparently to
protect it from hackers.

In an e-mail addressed to a person in France who had tried to access
the Web site, the Federal Voting Assistance Program's Web manager,
Susan Leader, wrote: "We are sorry you cannot access www.fvap.gov.
Unfortunately, Wanadoo France has had its access blocked to U.S.
government Web sites due to Wanadoo users constantly attempting to
hack these sites. We do not expect the block to be lifted."

In Washington, a Pentagon spokeswoman reached by telephone confirmed
that a number of Internet service providers worldwide had been
blacklisted to thwart hackers. The spokeswoman, Lieutenant Colonel
Ellen Krenke, declined to comment further.

The Federal Voting Assistance Program, which was designed to help both
military and civilian voters abroad, is under the authority of the
Defense Department.

Asked whether any other government Web sites had been blocked, a
Pentagon spokesman declined to comment.

[...]

--------------------------------------------------------

I would like some data. I am able to access the voting information
web site from several different Italian domains. Can some other
people living outside of the US try

http://fvap.gov/

and say if it is blocked? I would like to check the accuracy of this
IHT article and to see how widespread this blocking is.


Amara

-- 

Amara Graps, PhD
Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario (IFSI)
Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF),
Adjunct Assistant Professor Astronomy, AUR,
Roma, ITALIA     Amara.Graps at ifsi.rm.cnr.it



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