US Election Monitors

[NousDefionsDoc]

I am NOT Happy!

International team to monitor presidential election
Observers will be part of OSCE's human rights office
From David de Sola
CNN / August 8, 2004

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A team of international observers will monitor the presidential election in November, according to the U.S. State Department.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe was invited to monitor the election by the State Department. The observers will come from the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.

It will be the first time such a team has been present for a U.S. presidential election.

"The U.S. is obliged to invite us, as all OSCE countries should," spokeswoman Urdur Gunnarsdottir said. "It's not legally binding, but it's a political commitment. They signed a document 10 years ago to ask OSCE to observe elections."

Thirteen Democratic members of the House of Representatives, raising the specter of possible civil rights violations that they said took place in Florida and elsewhere in the 2000 election, wrote to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in July, asking him to send observers.

After Annan rejected their request, saying the administration must make the application, the Democrats asked Secretary of State Colin Powell to do so.

The issue was hotly debated in the House, and Republicans got an amendment to a foreign aid bill that barred federal funds from being used for the United Nations to monitor U.S. elections, The Associated Press reported.

In a letter dated July 30 and released last week, Assistant Secretary of State Paul Kelly told the Democrats about the invitation to OSCE, without mentioning the U.N. issue.

"I am pleased that Secretary Powell is as committed as I am to a fair and democratic process," said Democratic Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas, who spearheaded the effort to get U.N. observers.

"The presence of monitors will assure Americans that America cares about their votes and it cares about its standing in the world," she said in a news release.

Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee of California agreed.

"This represents a step in the right direction toward ensuring that this year's elections are fair and transparent," she said.

"I am pleased that the State Department responded by acting on this need for international monitors. We sincerely hope that the presence of the monitors will make certain that every person's voice is heard, every person's vote is counted."

OSCE, the world's largest regional security organization, will send a preliminary mission to Washington in September to assess the size, scope, logistics and cost of the mission, Gunnarsdottir said.

The organization, which counts among its missions conflict prevention and postconflict rehabilitation, will then determine how many observers are required and where in the United States they will be sent.

"OSCE-participating [nations] agreed in 1990 to observe elections in one another's countries. The OSCE routinely monitors elections within its 55-state membership, including Europe, Eurasia, Canada and the United States," a State Department spokesman said.

The spokesman said the United States does not have any details on the size and composition of the observers or what countries will provide them.

OSCE, based in Vienna, Austria, has sent more than 10,000 personnel to monitor more than 150 elections and referenda in more than 30 countries during the past decade, Gunnarsdottir said.

In November 2002, OSCE sent 10 observers on a weeklong mission to monitor the U.S. midterm elections. OSCE also sent observers to monitor the California gubernatorial recall election last year.

More recently, OSCE monitored the elections in Northern Ireland in November and in Spain in March.

[Jack Moroney (RIP)]

So there I was, kicked back under the covers listening to the coyotes singing up on the hill behind the cottage when all of a sudden my wife sat straight up in bed and, for someone who wouldn't say shit if she had a mouthful, laid down a blue streak of expletives that would have made Jay Graves blush. Not knowing exactly what was going on I sort of feigned sleep thinking that she had just discovered something stupid I had done, but no-she had her headphones on and had picked up this announcement from the Drudge Report. So, NDD, you are not the only one that is not happy about this crock of crap.

Jack Moroney

[The Reaper]

When an elected Representative from Texas asks the Euros to come monitor a US election, this country is going to hell in a handbasket.

Wonder if they would come monitor her re-election campaign?

To paraphrase a movie quote, this country needs an enema, and soon.

TR

[Razor]

While I agree this is a crock, I wonder if this observation team will note one party's almost inevitable use of dead and convicted 'voters', as they have done so often in the past.

[NousDefionsDoc]

Originally posted by Razor
While I agree this is a crock, I wonder if this observation team will note one party's almost inevitable use of dead and convicted 'voters', as they have done so often in the past.

I also wonder what they will have to say about keeping Nader off the ballot.

I still hate them.

[ghuinness]

Petition has been started to censure the 13 Dems that started this.

http://www.conservativepetitions.com/petitions.php?id=278

[The Reaper]

Originally posted by Razor
While I agree this is a crock, I wonder if this observation team will note one party's almost inevitable use of dead and convicted 'voters', as they have done so often in the past.

I thought the same thing. Much more likely to bite them than the Repubs. She and her cronies watched too much network TV.

If the observers are impartial, and render an unbiased report, the Dems may not invite them back again.

TR

[ghuinness]

I looked this up earlier. I thought this violated the FL Election Laws.

http://election.dos.state.fl.us/publications/pdf/electionLaws.pdf

Page 47 - Watchers at Polls.

"Each watcher shall be a qualified and registered elector of the county in which he or she serves".

[NousDefionsDoc]

Probably violates other state's as well

[Solid]

If Bush is elected and the committee proclaims it fair, though, it could be beneficial, right? No more Micheal Moore spiel on how Bush used his conspriacy links to get into office, etcetera.

Solid

[NousDefionsDoc]

Could be, but that ain't the point. Elections need to be monitored because of vast corruption or intimidation. The implication here is that we, one of the principle holders of the ideals of democracy, cannot police our own house. And it is just a short jump to handing over control like a lot of Europe has done. This is a subtle way of admitting that the 2000 elections were a fraud and Bush should have never been in office.

As far as I'm concerned, the EU and UN can do whatever they want, and so can we.

There are people in our country that would be more than happy to have the US join the EU or have all our troops unionized and wearing blue helmets.

The Europhiles had better watch out. Europe is a separate entity with it's own issues and needs. We need to follow our own path.

This crap has Jimmy Carter written all over it. Want to bet there's a "compromise" reached?

[Bravo1-3]

Simply put, there are no "impartial" Europeans. If Bush winns with 99% of the vote, and only one of those votes is questionable, they will take him to task on it. On the other hand, if Kerry wins by emptying out cemetaries, it will be "a few isolated incidents that have no cummulative bearing on the overall election process or its results."

[Gypsy]

This is utterly disgusting and repugnant to me.

Bravo 1-3 you have the lingo down pat...

[Ghostrider]

Absolutely disgusted and pissed off. There has to be something that can be done to prevent this travesty.:mad: :mad: :mad:

[Bravo1-3]

Here in Washington State, and Down in Oregon, I'd say around October-ish, there will be legal challenges in both states courts to allowing this to happen (if it happens at all).

In both states, it is illegal for foreign agents to even be in the same room as the ballots, ballot boxes, counting areas, or even the voters, unless they are registered voters in their respective states. I know that we're not the only states where this is so.

IF this happens, they will be limited to watching the polling places being set up before the ballots arrive.

Any kind of "supervision" they can provide would be in the form or standing around the Secretary of States Office. I'm even against that... even though out here it will be the dems doing the vote rigging.

[NousDefionsDoc]

Anybody know where we are with this abomination?

[1026]

It appears to me as if the OSCE has become a backdoor to legitimize Democrat election fraud, especially in Florida. They elected U.S. Representative, impeached federal judge, and all-around crook Alcee Hastings (http://www.osce.org/news/show_news.php?id=4222) as president of their Parliamentary Assembly. He is one of the leading proponents of "Bush stole the election".

[1026]

More info here. (http://www.newswithviews.com/DeWeese/tom16.htm)

[NousDefionsDoc]

Any new developments on this?

[1026]

I haven't heard or seen anything on this BS lately, other than a State Department press release issued through embassies to assure foreign countries that it's a good deal. I believe this is one part of the fraud equation the left would like to keep as low profile as possible. In the past few weeks they have been trying to lower expectations by making statements such as Jimmy Carter's (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3693354.stm) claim that Florida can't hold a fair election or peddling the idea that blacks will stay away from the polls because they are intimidated by the new touch screen voting system.

[ghuinness]

OSCE News briefing Oct 7 (http://www.osce.org/news/show_news.php?id=4427)

So far can't find the transcript of the meeting.

[D9 (RIP)]

Could be, but that ain't the point. Elections need to be monitored because of vast corruption or intimidation. The implication here is that we, one of the principle holders of the ideals of democracy, cannot police our own house. And it is just a short jump to handing over control like a lot of Europe has done. This is a subtle way of admitting that the 2000 elections were a fraud and Bush should have never been in office.

As far as I'm concerned, the EU and UN can do whatever they want, and so can we.

There are people in our country that would be more than happy to have the US join the EU or have all our troops unionized and wearing blue helmets.

The Europhiles had better watch out. Europe is a separate entity with it's own issues and needs. We need to follow our own path.

This crap has Jimmy Carter written all over it. Want to bet there's a "compromise" reached?

What this panders to is the pathological European idea that America is inherently undemocratic. Variously, we are stereotyped as a nation of censorship, a nation which so economically undermines whole groups that they are effectively disenfranchised, a nation of mindless conformists with dollar signs twirling hypnotically in everyone's eyes, etc. They also criticize the two-party system as inherently undemocratic. Ironically, they cited the 2000 election as evidence of the weakness of American "democracy." I say ironic, because they cite perhaps the closest election in world history as an example of declining democracy, yet it is in the world's dictatorships that we see the nearly unanimous victories for one side in sham elections. Is a close election not a symptom of the strength of a democracy, rather than a sign on weakness? Would it instead be a sign of a strong democracy if George Bush had carried 99% of the vote, as the Ayatollahs and despots of the world regularly do?

The never ending European suspicion about American democracy is irrational. It is the product of an irrational compulsion to derride America at every turn, even contradictorily (before we got involved in the Balkans we were "isolationists" neglected our global duty, when we got involved we were "imperialists" pushing everyone else around). It stems from a craven psychological need to rationalize Europe's own monumental failures over the past two centuries, and from the dominance of the tired Marxist ideology that still pervades across Europe, in substance if not in name. They still, essentially, see liberalism and capitalism as the great scourges of the planet. The US, as the greatest proponent and wellspring of those values, is guilty and suspect by definition. Anti-Americanism is an intellectual disease that has passed the point of epidemic in Europe until it is almost universal. That it exists to this level is pathetic. That American elected officials will stoop to the level of pandering to this pathological intellectual defect is worse.

[ghuinness]

Yet another Democrat excuse (http://www.palmbeachpost.com/politics/content/local_news/epaper/2004/10/08/s1d_ELECT_1008.html). I am getting so PO'd with this and we haven't had the election yet.

One more local piece (http://www.floridatoday.com/topstories/100804muslim.htm)

Dems file more lawsuits:

Florida Fight Over Vote Registration Forms
Friday, October 08, 2004

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida Democratic Party (search) accused Secretary of State Glenda Hood (search) of violating federal law when she told elections supervisors across the state that they should reject incomplete voter-registration forms.

Hood's office told counties they should disqualify voters who failed to check a box confirming they're U.S. citizens, even if they signed an oath on the same form swearing they are. She and other state officials have maintained that state and federal laws require the box to be checked.

In a federal lawsuit filed Thursday in Tallahassee, Democratic officials urged a judge to order Hood to reverse those instructions to the state's 67 counties.

"This issue is so clear-cut to me," said Scott Maddox, chairman of the Florida Democratic Party. "The Secretary of State's Office says they want to err on the side of the voter, yet they want to disenfranchise people."

Elections supervisors were flooded with registrations forms by the Monday deadline to sign up to vote for the Nov. 2 general election. Some counties have said they had no plans to follow Hood's policy.

The lawsuit marks the fourth time since August that the Democratic Party has taken Hood and her office to court. The Democrats successfully challenged plans by the state to reopen qualifying in a southwest Florida state Senate seat but were thwarted in their effort to keep Ralph Nader off the presidential ballot.

[Martin]

What this panders to is the pathological European idea that America is inherently undemocratic. Variously, we are stereotyped as a nation of censorship, a nation which so economically undermines whole groups that they are effectively disenfranchised, a nation of mindless conformists with dollar signs twirling hypnotically in everyone's eyes, etc. They also criticize the two-party system as inherently undemocratic. Ironically, they cited the 2000 election as evidence of the weakness of American "democracy." I say ironic, because they cite perhaps the closest election in world history as an example of declining democracy, yet it is in the world's dictatorships that we see the nearly unanimous victories for one side in sham elections. Is a close election not a symptom of the strength of a democracy, rather than a sign on weakness? Would it instead be a sign of a strong democracy if George Bush had carried 99% of the vote, as the Ayatollahs and despots of the world regularly do?

The never ending European suspicion about American democracy is irrational. It is the product of an irrational compulsion to derride America at every turn, even contradictorily (before we got involved in the Balkans we were "isolationists" neglected our global duty, when we got involved we were "imperialists" pushing everyone else around). It stems from a craven psychological need to rationalize Europe's own monumental failures over the past two centuries, and from the dominance of the tired Marxist ideology that still pervades across Europe, in substance if not in name. They still, essentially, see liberalism and capitalism as the great scourges of the planet. The US, as the greatest proponent and wellspring of those values, is guilty and suspect by definition. Anti-Americanism is an intellectual disease that has passed the point of epidemic in Europe until it is almost universal. That it exists to this level is pathetic. That American elected officials will stoop to the level of pandering to this pathological intellectual defect is worse.

You forgot that Americans are fundamentalist Christians and Evangelists and do not tolerate anyone else. :rolleyes:

Accurate post, I'd only have minor things to add.

[ghuinness]

:boohoo

Global monitors find faults
By Thomas Crampton International Herald Tribune
Wednesday, November 3, 2004


MIAMI The global implications of the U.S. election are undeniable, but international monitors at a polling station in southern Florida said Tuesday that voting procedures being used in the extremely close contest fell short in many ways from the best global practices.

The observers said they had less access to polls than in Kazakhstan, that the electronic voting had fewer fail-safes than in Venezuela, that the ballots were not so simple as in the Republic of Georgia and that no other country had such a complex national election system.

"To be honest, monitoring elections in Serbia a few months ago was much simpler," said Konrad Olszewski, an election observer stationed in Miami by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

"They have one national election law and use the paper ballots I really prefer over any other system," Olszewski said.

Olszewski, whose democratic experience began with Poland's first free election in 1989, is one of 92 observers brought in by the Vienna-based organization, which was founded to maintain military security in Europe at the height of the Cold War.

Two-member observer teams have fanned out across 11 states and include citizens of 36 countries, ranging from Canada and Switzerland to Latvia, Kyrgyzstan, Slovenia and Belarus.

Formation of the U.S. election mission came after the State Department issued a standard letter on June 9 inviting the group to monitor the election.

All 55 states in the organization have, since 1990, agreed to invite observation teams to their national elections.

The decision to observe a presidential election for the first time was made because of the changes prompted by controversy over the U.S. elections in 2000, involving George W. Bush and Al Gore.

"Our presence is not meant as a criticism," said Ron Gould, Olszewski's team partner and the former assistant chief electoral officer for Elections Canada. "We mainly want to assess changes taken since the 2000 election."

Speaking as voting began at 7 a.m. in the Firefighter's Memorial Hall for precincts 401 and 446 of Miami-Dade County, the observers drew sharp distinctions between U.S.-style elections and those conducted elsewhere around the world.

"Unlike almost every other country in the world, there is not one national election today," said Gould, who has been involved in 90 election missions to 70 countries. "The decentralized system means that rules vary widely county-by-county, so there are actually more than 13,000 elections today."

Variations in local election law not only make it difficult for election monitors to generalize on a national basis, but also prohibit the observers from entering polling stations at all in some states and counties. Such laws mean that no election observers from the OSCE are in Ohio, a swing state fraught with battles over voter intimidation and other polling issues.

As for electronic voting, Gould said he preferred Venezuela's system over the calculator-sized touchpads in Miami.

"Each electronic vote in Venezuela also produces a ticket that voters then drop into a ballot box," Gould said. "Unlike fully electronic systems, this gives a backup that can be used to counter claims of massive fraud."

Venezuela had trouble implementing the system, Gould added, because the ticket printers kept breaking down.

The United States is also nearly unique in lacking a unified voter registration system or national identity card, Gould said, adding that he would ideally require U.S. voters to dip a finger in an ink bowl or have a cuticle stained black after voting.

"In El Salvador, Namibia and so many other elections, the ink was extremely important in preventing challenges to multiple voting," Gould said. "In Afghanistan it didn't work so well because they used the dipping ink for the cuticles, so it wiped right off."

To observe elections in Florida, Gould and his partner first stopped to meet state election officials in Tallahassee.

Their visit to Miami included failed attempts to witness election preparations at two polling stations on Monday evening. After a two-hour drive through heavy traffic, the observers found both polling stations deserted.

"In Venezuela we drove around to all the polling stations ahead of time to make sure this didn't happen," Gould said. "Here we consider studying the system more important than looking at actual voting."

Indeed, the team left the Miami polling station little more than half an hour after voting began to make a live interview scheduled on CNN. Media relations has become a major part of their mission, with reporters mobbing the monitors at every stop in Florida and a Japanese television crew from NTV tailing them across the state since Friday.

"There is a lot of interest in Japan where this election observation is seen as a kind of satire," said Fumi Kobayashi, the New York-based correspondent for NTV. "So strange to imagine Europeans coming to monitor elections in the U.S., don't you think?"

A selection of voters and election officials questioned as they left the Miami polling station said they mainly found the election monitors reassuring.

"The United States has long been a model for the world," said Richard Williams, a poll-watcher officially designated by the Democratic Party. "If we allow international observers we will continue to have a leading role."

Not everyone agrees. Jeff Miller, a Republican congressman from Florida, considers the monitors an insult and has publicly urged them to leave. "Get on the next plane out of the United States to go monitor an election somewhere else, like Afghanistan," he said.

Notes taken by the observers, which Gould said often take up just a few pages from his pocket-sized reporter's notebook, will be fed into a national assessment issued by the organization two days after the election. Following standard procedure for all elections, a more detailed report will be issued one month later.

[Sigi]

Variations in local election law not only make it difficult for election monitors to generalize on a national basis, but also prohibit the observers from entering polling stations at all in some states and counties.
I am generally curious why we do not have some sort of uniform voting system. I voted for the first time today and it was very simple.

[NousDefionsDoc]

State's rights Homey. ;)

[Sigi]

I am all for states rights, but does the election process need to be that protected? I guess this is a question for another night.

[1026]

States don't have rights, they have powers... just thought I'd be a dickhead, lol. :lifter