George W. Bush

President

United States of America

President Bush,

As Americans living abroad, we are in a unique position to view first hand the results of your administration’s policies around the world. Some of us work in business, others are studying, some of us are traveling and others are overseas on military service. Whatever our reasons for being abroad, we take seriously our duty to take part in the process of democracy back home. For this reason, we are alarmed that government agencies under your command have begun deliberately blocking access to ballots and voter information for Americans stationed overseas. With foreign policy occupying center stage in this election, it is more important than ever that the voice of Americans abroad be heard. Instead, right now they are being stifled.

Just as troubling is the claim that this blocking is for security reasons, in order to prevent hacking. Banking, commerce and countless other sensitive sites routinely allow users access from anywhere in the world. The Internet itself was originally developed by the US military to function even under nuclear attack. It is simply not plausible that sites hosting voter registration forms cannot be protected from intrusion without blocking entire populations of US citizens in other countries. When placed in the context of repeated revelations of ongoing voter suppression tactics being carried out at home, these actions look like a deliberate attempt to suppress the votes of millions of people with first-hand knowledge of the damage your administration has done to America’s standing in the world. However concerned you may be that our experiences may lead us to reject your policies, any attempt to block Americans’ access to participate in this election is an affront to the democratic principles our country stands for — principles that all Americans expect their government to defend, not defy.

By falling back on “security” as a pretext for these actions, you are further undermining the credibility of the federal government you currently lead. The repercussions of this go beyond politics: they raise the risk that future, real threats will not be taken seriously by those most threatened. For these reasons, we call on you immediately to lift the ban on access to the Federal Voting Assistance Program by Americans overseas. We call on you to reassure us — with actions rather than words — that illegitimate partisan political actions will never be taken in the name of national security, and above all, we call on you to guarantee that the right of Americans to vote will be respected and supported in every corner of the globe.