Number of overseas voters may break records in ’08

[unhappycamper]

Number of overseas voters may break records in ’08
By Geoff Ziezulewicz, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Sunday, October 26, 2008

Organizations dedicated to helping overseas voters cast their ballot this year are reporting unprecedented rates of participation over the past few months as Election Day and absentee ballot deadlines near.

The Defense Department’s Federal Voting Assistance Program, which assists all U.S. voters overseas, reported about 10.5 million visits to www.fvap.gov this year as of Oct. 19, up from 7.3 million visits for all of 2004.

The site provides absentee voter information by state, and about 15,000 user accounts have been set up in which voters can fill out and generate state-specific absentee ballot request forms, according to Army Lt. Col. Les’ Melnyk, a FVAP spokesman.

The Overseas Vote Foundation, a nonprofit voter advocacy group, averaged about 32,000 visits a day in September to www.overseasvotefoundation.org and other OVF-supported sites, such as obama.overseasvotefoundation.organd mccain.overseasvotefoundation.org.

This is the first election in which presidential candidates have offered such services to overseas voters, according to Susan Dzieduszycka-Suinat, head of OVF.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=58402