Iraq overseas voter registration extended

Seattle Post Intelligencer - AP ^ | January 22, 2005 | ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS

[AliVeritas]

GENEVA -- Voter registration by Iraqis living outside their country has been far below expectations - perhaps due to apathy or fear of reprisals - but it has shown signs of increasing, prompting organizers to extend it for two days, they said Saturday.

Only about one in nine of the estimated 1.2 million overseas Iraqis eligible to vote in their country's Jan. 30 elections have registered in the first five days of the drive, said a spokeswoman for the International Organization for Migration, which is organizing the overseas vote.

The migration body has been trying to drum up interest in the Jan. 30 ballot among Iraqi emigrants and is mystified at the poor turnout so far to register for their homeland's first independent election in nearly 50 years.

[bahblahbah]

I really wish some of the policy people or there underlings would check the blogs. There have been a many complaints from expats that the registering areas are too few and far between.

[bahblahbah]

there = their

[mrsmith]

Only "74 registration centers in all 14 countries... "

It does require quite a bit of effort to travel to a far place to register and then back again to vote. It would mean taking time off from work two days.

[OldFriend]

Consider that there only a few places here in the US where Iraqi expats can register to vote. They must travel quite a distance to register and then again to vote.