Pentagon lifts block on voter site

Jennifer Joan Lee - September 23, 2004

PARIS The U.S. Defense Department changed its explanation Wednesday for problems faced by certain overseas Americans attempting to access the government Web site for voters abroad, saying that an Internet security block imposed several years ago had been left in place inadvertently.

The block, which had prevented some U.S. citizens abroad from accessing www.fvap.gov, the site of the Federal Voting Assistance Program, as the Nov. 2 election nears, has now been lifted, a Pentagon spokesman said.

Tim Madden, spokesman for the Defense Department task force that oversees the Pentagon's computer networks, declined to specify the reason for the block.

Earlier, a Pentagon official indicated that the block had been imposed to thwart hackers, but Madden would not comment on this.

He insisted, however, that the Pentagon had not been not blocking the Federal Voting Assistance Program's site.

Earlier Wednesday, three members of Congress wrote to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warning that the block could result in "the potential disenfranchisement of millions of overseas Americans" and urging him to restore access to the site.

News that access to the voting assistance site was restricted, first reported in the International Herald Tribune on Monday, infuriated both Democrats and Republicans.

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