NEWS: Sorry abroad Troops...No voting access for you.

The troops who put their life on the line for their country can't vote because they are away from homeland after a decision made by the DoD

How about Internet voting...you might ask!

The Pentagon has decided to scrap plans for an on-line Internet voting system for U.S. military personnel and Americans living abroad. The system had come under fire from experts who said it could be vulnerable to computer attacks.

The decision to cancel the computer-voting project was made by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz.

Pentagon says No.

The excuse for abandoning Internet voting was the weaknesses in the system could jeopardize voter privacy and allow votes to be altered and even election results to be tampered with. They said there were far too many opportunities for hackers or even terrorists to interfere with fair and accurate voting...so they babble.

I am totally against it because if we look from this point, then even having Internet is a weakness.

What do you guys think?


[Edited on 5-2-2004 by Nerdling]

that is ridiculous!!!

What about mail in voting? don't they do that for military in other locales?

there has to be a way to allow the citizens who are actually fighting for this country to vote.

This is being done because they know the majority of those serving over there will vote against bush. So how better to protect your hijacked presidency that to cut off thousands of potential votes for a different person?

Originally posted by worldwatcher
that is ridiculous!!!
What about mail in voting? don't they do that for
military in other locales?
there has to be a way to allow the citizens who are actually fighting for this country to vote.

Mail in voting, that is too old. It is like walking to where you want to go, when you have a car.

There is a way to allow citizens to vote, it is called e-voting, but pentagon won't allow it.

well it seems they don't want to do e-voting because of fears of being hacked....but come on this is the gov't and our military...can't they come up with a secure way to allow for our people to vote....this really pisses me off. They have a few months, I hope this becomes a big stink in the media and make them find a way to allow it.

Originally posted by worldwatcher
well it seems they don't want to do e-voting because of fears of being hacked....but come on this is the gov't and our military...can't they come up with a secure way to allow for our people to vote....this really pisses me off. They have a few months, I hope this becomes a big stink in the media and make them find a way to allow it.

Worldwatcher, have you noticed your posts are exactly what I have in mind.

..and they say the govt is not trying to find ways to gain more control...when the govt takes away voting rights for another 'section' of the population, this is the case they will site and say, 'see, it's legal, we've done it before.' if anybody should get to vote, it should be those who are putting thier lives on the line so we can continue to vote.

with all the pissed off soldiers over there, it gives the Bush admin an easy way to cut them out.

If the current troops escepially in Iraq were allowed to vote, Bush would probably will not win.

How many troops do we have abroad? Is it a really big number to decide who becomes president?


[Edited on 5-2-2004 by surfup]

I just emailed every tv station anchor/newshows that I could find, asking them to investigate this issue and bring it to the public's attention. I don't know if my single emails will do anything, but perhaps others are doing the same. Let's see what happens.

Originally posted by worldwatcher
I just emailed every tv station anchor/newshows that I could find, asking them to investigate this issue and bring it to the public's attention. I don't know if my single emails will do anything, but perhaps others are doing the same. Let's see what happens.

This is a very controversial issue, I am sure that someone will investigate it.

whoa whoa...now wait just one minizzle. before u guys go and complain, it said INTERNET voting. therefore, they can still vote by mail! soldiers have been voting by mail for like...ever. Barring soldiers from voting would be unconstitutional and sooner or later, ppl in the U.S will hear if soldiers weren't allowed to vote and there will be a huge case made about it

thanks silq, i figured they could have done it by mailing. Still it should still be a big deal, a superpower like this country can't provide secure internet voting is a joke. The mailing way has many flaws and seems to be more easily unprotected.

*slaps surfup upside his head (joking)

I think there something that allows troops abroad not to vote or something. Didn't FDR make special arrangements for troops abroad to vote, and that is why he got into power?

*Slaps world watcher back.

whoa whoa here. You people are over reacting. I'm very sure the troops can still vote by mail. What they can't do is vote by some horrible buggy insecure remote voting system. If you have a system online, as ATS proves, you have a system that can be hacked and compromised. Do you want another vote scam happening? Hell no.

I doubt vote scam can't happen so easily because of all the security and resources Pentagon has, it has the best technology in the world.

I think everyone is guranteed one vote, so even if some lucky hacker tries to vote for someone else, it will be easily shown, right?

Maybe I am wrong.

I cannot find any sources saying that they are not allowed to vote... I can only find articles saying they cannot vote online....

So I'm sure they are allowed to vote, just by other means

surfup- I can't stress this enough. If you have a computer on a network it can be hacked. If it's as important as a voting system it WILL be hacked. Hacking is very easy, if you know what you're doing.

This is ridiculus. Why can't we have some sort of manual voting system in place for these troops? These brave man and women can put there lives on the line for our country and in return we take away one of their greatest freedoms, ie the right to vote. I don't get it.

[Edited on 6-2-2004 by NashvilleKat]

Hey guys, Actually theyare letting us vote. It came on the AFN this morning, which is like nighttime for ya'll. It's gonna be mail in. So you know
Combat Medic
2 CAV
Baghdad, Iraq