Pentagon blocks site for voters outside U.S.

[True_Blue]

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

[fugue]

1. They know most US voters abroad are pro-Kerry

[mopinko]

2. smell that smell

bullshit!

[Cha]

3. Cause these outside People know the

truth about bush? And why would the pentagon be the one blocking the votes?

[sally343434]

4. Can't work

Aren't they aware how easy it is to proxy into any site using a domestic IP address?

[Flammable Materials]

21. Not everyone knows how to do that ...

But a hacker - the very person the Pentagon claims to be keeping out of the site - learns this on day one.

[truhavoc]

5. Who better than those living abroad...

to know what hatred * has aroused overseas. Now those who experience everyday these feelings are not going to be given a fair shot at voting??? These people just don't stop...trying to screw around with democratic elections is about as low and corrupt as you can get, pretty damn close to a totalitarian state.

[WMliberal]

6. hmm, but somehow, soldiers and other right voting groups

will not have any trouble voting. just a guess.

[FormerOstrich]

10. Yep, just read the other day....

Troops can waive their right to a secret ballot and Fax into the Pentagon. Then the Pentagon will distribute to the appropriate percents. How convenient!!

[alfredo]

7. There are ways around it.

I can tell some didn't read the whole article.

[Eloriel]

12. Alternative solution (since I did read the whole damn article)

Those who cannot access the voting assistance program site can go to a new site, www.overseasvote2004.com, which promises to help absentee voters complete registration "in five minutes." It features state-specific registration forms that voters can print out and fax and mail back to their states.
.
Alternately, voters can go to their U.S. embassies or contact their local representatives of Democrats Abroad or Republicans Abroad for a registration form.

[alfredo]

26. There will be a quiz.

And no, it will not be multiple choice.

The Pentagon needs to stop using Microsoft products. It just makes the hacker's job easier.

[PartyPooper]

8. We're hated for our freedom.

[sweetheart]

30. I mentioned this on DU about this a year ago

I was trying to register a year back and websites were blocked
bigtime. Now, as a 'REGISTERED' democratic voter abroad, i'm very
confident that www.democratsabroad.org has got this sorted, no matter
what kinda bullshit the pukes pull.

Americans abroad are 1000 times more aware of the horrible state of
affairs bush has put us in, as we are on the frontline, each of us,
a micro-diplomat explaining and excusing "our" government from its
criminal behaviour (And apologizing).

Don't worry about "us", focus on getting the vote out wherever 'YOU'
live, and lets win this thing! :-)

Good vibes to all democrats all over the earth....!

[PartyPooper]

33. Thank you for your very important post. Let's prevail in November!

:hi:


:kick:

[psychopomp]

9. I just followed the link

and this machine is on the Yahoo BB network. So, the part about Japan's Yahoo BB users not able to access the site is not valid.

[Snazzy]

11. It's on a gov machine in VA

EDIT: correcting earlier

Are you in Japan? If you are not trying to connect from Japan, you wouldn't know. They can block a range of servers/ip addresses easily.

Here's the actual host in VA:

131.84.1.219 = < fvap.gov >
OrgName: Defense Technical Information Cntr
OrgID: DTIC-3
Address: 8725 John J. Kingman Road
Address: Suite 0944
City: Fort Belvoir
StateProv: VA
PostalCode: 22060-6218
Country: US
NetRange: 131.84.0.0 - 131.84.255.255
CIDR: 131.84.0.0/16
NetName: DTIC-NET
NetHandle: NET-131-84-0-0-1
Parent: NET-131-0-0-0-0
NetType: Direct Assignment
NameServer: NS1.DTIC.MIL
NameServer: NS2.DTIC.MIL

That's The Defense Technical Information Center.

As I've been posting in some other threads on this, DoD is responsible for all overseas votes, military, contractors, other gov employees and especilly citizens. They say that's up to 6.4 million potential votes.

Anyway, these guys are the pros. Can definately shut you out by geography or provider easily.

[psychopomp]

15. Yes, I am.

It works.

Anyhow, Yahoo BB is only one of many ISP's here, though it has a sizable chunk of the market.

[Snazzy]

16. thanks for follow up.

I'm going to keep watching this carefully--if you hear about people there blocked, give a shout (and I see Dems abroad has this on their Japan site's blog too--but no new details).

[Kellanved]

23. In Japan's case it may have something to with the lack of addresses

AFAIR it is not unusual to be behind several NATs in Japan, one banned IP address might keep out many surfers from the site.

[Snazzy]

13. Right now people are using that site to

get ballots (with Oct. 2 being a rule of thumb deadline I saw on one of the sites).

Both the Democratic and Rethug abroad sites heavily link in to fvap to get info on State requirements.

After that, the whole crazy absentee fax voting thing starts (for more than 20 states, many of the swings).

---------
See my earlier LBN thread: Pentagon offers troops a new way to vote
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=835525
---------

The fax numbers and where to mail the ballots would be some of the key info they are blocking here. Rethugs abroad has email listings for some 60 countries, which would come in handy if you are blocked from going to fvap.gov. Didn't see that on the Dem sites.

Someone needs to make giant noise about this whole thing NOW.

>> The blocked FVAP.GOV site. For certain military members and probably conservative American abroad areas will get any info they want. Of course France is first to be blocked. *This site is of course tax payer funded too).

>> The fax voting that will be processed exclusively by a company called Omega, Republican donor, $10 mil. DoD contract. For a potential pool of 6.4 million voters according to DoD's FVAP. Friggen Rumsfeld is the guy responsible for all overseas votes. Nobody knows!

[Snazzy]

14. Interesting: Usabroad.org

http://www.usabroad.org/2004/09/overseas_voters_1.html

09/17/2004
Overseas Voters: Silent Swing Votes
OverseasVote.com reports that over 3,000 U.S. citizens per day from over 150 countries are registering through the three main private voter registration websites for U.S. citizens abroad: Overseasvote2004.com, Overseasvote.com, and TellAnAmericanToVote.com. All voters may use the sites but data from operators suggests more than 95% of their registrants support Kerry. Since June, month-to-month registration growth has exceeded 120%.

...

The Federal Voting Assistance Program, which runs a voter registration site for U.S. citizens abroad funded by the Pentagon at www.FVAP.gov, has received 340,000 absentee ballot requests as of July 1, 2004 ­-- already 90,000 more than the total number of absentee ballots in 2000, acording to OverseasVote.com.

More than 80% of OverseasVote.com's registrations occurred after July 1, according to the site. It said this implies that the total number of potential overseas voters in 2004 will exceed 1.8 million: an increase of 625%.

These overseas Americans are 'silent swing' voters not reflected in any state or national poll numbers. They may well decide many swing states' elections, and have a substantial impact on which party will control Congress and the White House.

Following are projections of likely absentee votes for selected states, based on OverseasVote.com site data:

Florida - 77,000
Pennsylvania - 61,000
Michigan - 58,000
Washington - 55,000
Virginia - 46,000
Ohio - 45,000
Colorado - 42,000
Minnesota - 38,000
Oregon - 35,000
North Carolina - 29,000
Wisconsin - 22,000

....
---------

Those numbers from long ago--July 1.

Plus this blog seems slanted our way (nice to see, but maybe why DoD is now blocking the damn publically funded website for overseas voters from overseas voters. Just amazing).

[Polemonium]

24. Thanks for that

Very encouraging numbers. I'll be very curious to see how the final numbers play out.

[Polemonium]

25. actual state numbers from www.overseasvote2004.com

Non-battleground Total 28,846
Grand Total 45,793 (as of 17 September)


FL 2,383
PA 1,976
WA 1,412
MI 1,378
OH 1,212
VA 1,166
CO 936
MN 921
NC 833
WI 800
OR 786
AZ 702
MO 588
IA 331
NH 320
NM 277
LA 259
ME 246
NV 222
AR 122
WV 77

[Snazzy]

35. Sounds so low

Not sure what to make of that. Florida probably sent out/fielded that many ballots alone.

[rocobites]

17. Yes, this was a problem a couple of weeks ago for me but...

I went to Overseasvote.com (defeat Bush in 2004) and they sent me all the proper forms so I´m waiting for the ballot now.

[leftchick]

18. thwart hackers? or voters?

that is not too hard to figure out!

[da_chimperor]

19. I can access it!

They haven't gotten to my provider . . . yet. I guess this means the server for the site runs on some version of windows.

[Flammable Materials]

20. I'm Setting Up A Mirror Of The FVAP Website.

The URL (once uploaded and crossing my fingers and hoping that everything works) will be http://www.thisistheshit.org/fvap

Feel free to spread the URL around. It's still in the process of uploading as I'm typing this. Some of the links (such as "Contact Us") probably won't work, but I'm more concerned that the information is up and available.

EDIT: IT'S UP!

[wildflower]

22. They really expect people to buy this?

No one in the USA is capable of hacking. Only people overseas. Right.

-wildflower

[Polemonium]

27. Interesting AOK (Americans Overseas for Kerry)

FYI: From AOK (Americans overseas for Kerry)

Can we say 'inconsistency'?

The Embassy is asking for a list of American students
at a school that is likely majority republican?

We have also just had reports in Denmark that the Embassy has requested
a list of all American students at Copenhagen Business School. I don't
know if we can find out why or if they have done something similar at other universities. -- AOK Denmark

Why Inconsistent –

Well several embassies (we’re still looking at how many) have been discouraging Democrats Abroad and AOK from doing voter registration drives on University Campuses overseas.

[Pallas180]

28. unbelievable

[spotbird]

29. Ashcroft is sending out "voter fraud" squads.

To Democratic areas.

Every day it is more clear how Hitler gained power.

[LSK]

31. land of the free NOT

More like the USSR everyday here....

[LTR]

32. You mean to tell me our govenment can't even secure a COMPUTER???

My system is armed to the teeth, and I challenge any hacker to bust into it. I'm running Windows and have an always-on broadband connection.

The government that's supposed to protect us from terrorists can't even secure a computer or bank of servers? You have GOT to be kidding me!

[Snazzy]

34. Now in USA Today (AP)

Posted 9/21/2004 3:01 AM

Pentagon restricts overseas access to voter registration site
By John Leicester, Associated Press

PARIS — 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.

...

"There has been a marked increase in Web attacks on government computers, more as we get closer to the election. As a result, many Internet service providers have been blocked from accessing our site," Leader wrote.

Brett Rierson, a Hong Kong-based Democrat who wrote to Leader about the problem, provided The Associated Press with a copy of her e-mail. Rierson says he has tracked complaints from users of at least 27 ISPs in 25 countries who have been denied access to information from the Pentagon-run site.

...

The sister of Democratic hopeful Sen. John Kerry said she was "outraged" and accused the Pentagon of "gross bureaucratic negligence and indifference to the rights of American voters."

"That the Pentagon ... has chosen to surrender to unspecified 'hackers' without firing a single shot in defense of American democracy is suspect," Diana Kerry said in a statement.

....

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/2004-09-21-voterreg-block_x.htm

(story not on Yahoo as yet)

[He loved Big Brother]

36. Who put the Pentagon in charge of voting?

I didn't get that memo. Has the military always been in charge of the voting rules?

[Iceburg]

37. Call to action ...

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")