Pentagon Bid to Reform Absentee Voting Draws Fire
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Pentagon efforts to fix absentee voting problems among U.S. troops that marred the 2000 election have run into trouble as plans to use the Internet crumbled and a fax or e-mail balloting system draws fire.
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The Senate rejected legislation Friday that would have ordered most U.S. troops home from Iraq in nine months, culminating a losing week for Democrats who failed to push through any anti-war proposal. The vote, 47-47, fell 13 votes short of the 60 needed to pass.
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Friday's St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports on a controversial decision by Missouri's Secretary of State: the state of Missouri will be allowing soldiers stationed overseas to cast ballots via e-mail. Their absentee ballots will be scanned and converted to PDF files, which will be emailed to the Defense Department, printed out, and then faxed to Missouri.  I'm in favor of helping soldiers vote; this is a democracy, everyone should be able to vote. Yet I'm deeply skeptical of this proposal, for two reasons:  The plan depends on e-mailed ballots being printed out and faxed by the Defense Department but does not provide any safeguards against soldiers being sanctioned for how they have voted;  The transmission method is inherently technically insecure
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Senate Democrats on Friday said   legislation that would require voters to show proof of U.S.   citizenship to vote in federal elections was little more than a   poll tax and urged Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to stop   the bill.
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The Pentagon on Thursday opposed  calls for an independent investigation of prisoner abuse from  human rights groups and a key congressional Democrat, who said  such a probe was the only way to get to the truth.
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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.
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Democrats and at least some Republicans are seeking political gain by attacking the defense secretary.
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The Pentagon has issued a stinging rebuke to Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton, arguing that she is boosting enemy propaganda by asking how the U.S. plans to eventually withdraw from Iraq.
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The Defense secretary is drawing fire from increasingly vocal critics, including some senior Republicans and top military officers.
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A core of highly conservative Republicans aligned with the Pentagon moved to block a vote on a bill that would have enacted the recommendations of the 9/11 panel.
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By KELLY WIESE    JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.  -- Missouri will allow members of the military stationed overseas to return absentee ballots via e-mail, raising concerns from Internet security experts about fraud and ballot secrecy...
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The Pentagon is counting on its improved Web site to help an estimated 6.5 million Americans &#151; U.S. troops at war and others living overseas &#151; vote in the November elections.
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Democratic presidential hopefuls in the Senate cast symbolic votes Saturday against President Bush's effort to boost troop levels in Iraq amid calls by campaign rivals for Congress to embrace far stronger measures to end the war.
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Some Americans overseas are being denied access to a Pentagon-run Web site intended to make it easier for them to vote by absentee ballot due to security measures to thwart hackers, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.
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A weary and sharply divided U.S. Senate on Wednesday blocked a Democratic effort that would have brought all American combat troops out of Iraq by the end of April 2008.
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A Democratic county clerk sent absentee ballot applications to all registered voters over 60 in her jurisdiction Thursday, after a judge rejected Republicans' arguments that the unrequested mailings were illegal.
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Three House Democrats are urging colleagues to revoke key parts of new personnel rules that would curb union rights at the Defense Department, contending the rules are a "bad deal" for Defense civil service employees.