corrente

Yet more Americans disenfranchised:

Many overseas Americans - possibly thousands - may not be able to vote in this year's presidential election because of an omission during the latest round of U.S. electoral reform, according to U.S. officials and organizations representing Americans abroad.

Left out of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 were young Americans who have never lived in the United States but who do have U.S. citizenship through an American parent.

While some states allow these youths to register at the voting address of their parents, more than three-quarters of the states do not, leaving a significant slice of U.S. citizens abroad effectively disfranchised as they come of age.

"There is no federal legislation on this at present," said Polli Brunelli, director of the Federal Voting Assistance Program. "The states are the ones who administer elections. They pass the laws on voting."

Gee, I wonder if there are more disenfranchised voters in Red States or Blue States? What do you think? Let's look:

Twelve states allow Americans who have always resided abroad and are children of U.S. citizens to use a parent's voting address, Brunelli said in a telephone interview from Washington. The states are Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

Organizations representing Americans abroad put the number of civilians overseas at 4.1 million.

Of those, the number who have always lived abroad and have turned 18 since the last presidential election in 2000 - when overseas absentee ballots became an issue in the Bush-Gore count - is unknown.

"There could be thousands in that category," said Lucy Laederich, a Paris-based nonpartisan advocate for overseas Americans. "But of course we'll never know until we're counted in the census."

fawco.org has a full panoply of information about voting for overseas Americans, with links to many other sites. www.fvap.gov is the official site of the Federal Voting Assistance Program.
(via The Herald Trib)

A razor thin election, and yet more Blue State voters disenfranchised. Coincidence? You be the judge.

Can we get some international monitors for election 2004?