Record numbers of
Americans abroad have registered, but bureaucratic snafus may prevent
many from actually voting
Susan Dzieduszycka-Suinat is pumped. Two weeks ago,
sitting in an internet cafe on Munich's Odeonplatz, the software
marketer who crafted a hugely successful voter registration website,
pulls up numbers that show a remarkable spike in Americans overseas
mobilising to defeat George W Bush. Between her site and another out of
Hong Kong, Democrats have registered 140,000 new voters, 40% of them
from swing states - and that is just the tip of the iceberg. Americans
abroad, roused to a boiling fury by a Bush doctrine that has smeared
America's good name across the globe, are looking like the "silent
swing vote" in several key battleground states. Overseas registration
for both parties is up by 400% over 2000; estimates put the tally of
possible civilian votes as high as 2 million. Then the panicked emails
start flooding in. Today, less than two weeks before the tightest
presidential race in memory, untold thousands of overseas voters still
have not received their ballots - and clearly won't be able to get them
back in time. [more ]
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