Americans Overseas Kick Off Super Tuesday

Expatriates Head To Polling Places And, For First Time, The Internet

(CBS/AP)  Americans living overseas started lining up in hotels and coffee shops Tuesday to vote for Democratic candidates in the 2008 U.S. presidential elections, while others - for the first time ever - cast ballots online.

But some voting experts expressed fears that Internet ballots were vulnerable to tampering, computer hacking and could not be authenticated or recounted.

Indonesia, where candidate Barack Obama once lived as a child, kicked off the Super Tuesday campaign at the stroke of midnight. More than a hundred people turned out at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in the normally bustling capital, saying America needed to restore its reputation across the globe.

"Living overseas, I think that's the most important thing," said Peter Gardiner as he waited in line with his family. "We've had eight years of an administration that has basically destroyed America's image."

While votes to choose party candidates were taking place in more than 20 U.S. states Tuesday, the busiest day in the U.S. primary election season, overseas balloting lasts for a week. Polling booths were being set up in locations ranging from a doughnut shop in Cambodia, to a pub in Ireland, to a French cafe.

CBS News correspondent Barry Petersen in Tokyo says, for Americans living abroad, it's never been easier to follow the election. Candidates have web sites where the interested can see position papers, watch campaign rallies and even check out the latest commercials. "It's almost like being home," says Petersen.

Expatriates weren't the only ones paying attention to the polling, adds Petersen; Super Tuesday was the top foreign story in Japan's news coverage.

The U.S. has dominated much of Asia's attention since World War II, and Petersen says Asians know that what happens in the U.S. can affect their lives. Different presidents deal differently with issues like exports to America, how the military is used in the region, and how to handle Chinese-American relations; and encouraging cooperation or confrontation with the regime in North Korea.

"This is a critical election. We are at a tipping point," said Don Bryant, a 54-year-old retired U.S. Army medical officer among dozens voting at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand.

"The direction it goes will make a big difference in the life my children have."

Some 6 million expatriates are eligible to vote, but only a fraction have done so in the past. Up until recently, their only option was to mail absentee ballot request forms to their last U.S. county of residence, then wait for ballots to be delivered in time to vote.

Melissa Howell-Alipalo, a longtime resident in the Philippines, was among those voting online Tuesday - an option that, like overseas in-person voting, is not available to Republicans.

She said it couldn't have been easier.

"I registered with Democrats Abroad, I was approved, received my ballot number and a pin code in an e-mail. I clicked on the hyperlink, entered my ballot number, address and birth date."

Then presto, Howell-Alipalo said, she voted.

Barbara Simons, a member of the nonprofit Verified Voting Foundation and a critic of electronic voting, warned, however, that "just because it was simple, doesn't mean it's successful."

"How do I know if ballot box stuffing was done?" she said in a telephone interview. "How do I know they were legitimate votes? This is not the way to run an election."

Republicans Abroad has operated independently of its national party since 2003, and therefore cannot hold in-person or Internet votes overseas. But it is organizing to get more expatriate Republicans registered back home in time to receive their ballots overseas and cast them in primaries later this year.

Hundreds of Democrats were registered in Indonesia, a predominantly Muslim nation of 235 million, where Obama lived with his mother from the age of 6 until 10, growing up with exotic pets, like his monkey Tata, and tasting rare delicacies, from snake meat to grasshoppers.

"There is a bit of rooting for the hometown boy," said Tristram Perry, the public diplomacy officer at the U.S. Embassy, as an early tally at the J.W. Marriott gave Obama a resounding 75 percent of the votes to 25 percent for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

"It is the first time someone who grew up in Indonesia is running for president."

But Ari Bassin, a 31-year-old New York native, said he was sticking with Clinton.

"She brings heft to the table and has respect from around the world that, at this point, I'm not sure Obama has," he said.

The Democratic National Convention in August will include 22 delegates from overseas. Under party rules, they get half a vote each for a total of 11. That's more than U.S. territories get, but fewer than the least populous states, Wyoming and Alaska, which get 18 delegate votes each.

The overseas delegates will be selected through a combination of local, regional and worldwide caucus meetings.

[jack3213]

The Clintons remind me of a desperate and saddened old cult that has gone out of style, that too many Americans can''''t let go of, that in their feeble attempt to fall for the pie in the sky, once again, they will be sucked into the illusionary scam of fraud and hope to aquire things they will go poor paying for, only to come to the realization they were sadly lied to. SAVE YOUR OWN SOUL!-- "IS" means: Clinton IS DONE!

[sharednotion]

It''s nice that U.S. citizens living abroad can have at least some participation in the political process. They cannot vote in the November presidential election, since the Constitution only gives "electors" (Electoral College members) to the 50 states and D.C., so a citizen would have to be a resident of one of those to vote in November. But, by allowing them to at least participate in the primary process, that brings a broader perspective of voters into the current stage of the process of choosing the next president.

[candide777]

If you don''t like it, that''s your problem, but attacking Christianity is just plain silly as it is no threat to you and noone will ever force you to become a Christian in the USA.
Posted by TruthWord08 at 05:41 PM : Feb 05, 2008

First, I don''t have a problem. Second, I''m not attacking Christianity, I''m just pointing out that it is just plain silly, kind of like your post above, and after all, I am allowed to exercise my freedom of expression. If you don''t like it, that''s your problem. So, stick that in your pipe and smoke it! :-)

[truthword08]

The arrogance of Christianity never ceases to amaze me.
Posted by Candide777

-How was skymountain being arrogant Candide777? From what I''m reading all I see is him just utilizing his freedom of speech and freedom of expression and his right to support whomever he chooses to support. If you don''t like it, that''s your problem, but attacking Christianity is just plain silly as it is no threat to you and noone will ever force you to become a Christian in the USA.

JMHO

TW08

[rudy654-2009]

"Dont be a corporate hater. They expand, they hire new people. It''''s as simple as that."

LOL! They expand...they hire new people...in INDIA!!

[candide777]

Jesus: "Mr. Huckabee, how many loaves of bread and fishes have ye that I may feed the people?"

Huckabee: "Will this flag pole fit up your arse? Get a job, you liberal freak!"

[denn034]

I voted for John McCain in Utah today. If age and health problems were an argument against voting for someone, then, we would never have had either Reagan or FDR. McCain is also a fellow veteran. I was in the ballot thinking hard about the four Republican candidates available and only McCain seemed like he''d beat slick Hilly to me so, I voted for him. My fellow Republicans should vote for him as well.

[rowdytexan2]

Posted by lovegetpeace at 04:25 PM : Feb 05, 2008

Well said!

[rowdytexan2]

Posted by poopusbuttus at 04:00 PM : Feb 05, 2008

I thought maybe you had an original thought of your own, but alas, you are just another blind sheep Neocon that sucks up whatever they tell you.

Sad, really.

[lovegetpeace]

Hay poopusbuttus,
I hope we have a massive Tax Increase just like 1993 when our economy went to heaven with a huge Budget Surplus my dear children would love to hear about today.

Too bad I love my children more than you do with your tax cuts and rebates non-senses.