Foreign Observers to Monitor US Election

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Foreign Observers to Monitor US Election
7
Mon, 08-09-2004 - 1:50pm

What do you think....... good idea..... bad idea?


                                                                                   Election Day 


http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=59252AA0-0750-4A46-967036F8BD419C80


The State Department has invited international monitors to observe the U.S. presidential election on November second.


The observers will come from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, of which the United States is a member

Assistant Secretary of State Paul Kelly has affirmed the invitation in a letter to 13 congressional Democrats.

The Democrats called for observers last month, saying they want to avoid a repeat of the disputed 2000 election. That year, problems with ballot designs and recount procedures in the state of Florida left it to the courts to decide the presidency.

Republicans opposed the request for observers, and passed a measure last month that bars the government from funding United Nations election monitors.

This is believed to be the first time foreign observers will monitor a U.S. presidential election, though the OSCE sent a team to monitor U.S mid-term elections in 2002.

cl-Libraone~

 


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Avatar for papparic
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Mon, 08-09-2004 - 2:17pm
As an outsider looking in, and one who has done a fair share of reading on your 2000 election, the 2004 election should and must be observed by qualified foreign observers. I can understand the Republicans hesitancy to have the process checked but the US already suffers from a general mistrust worldwide. Any steps that can be taken, to restore some faith in a democratic process supposedly to be the model for everywhere else, should be taken.

American voters themselves don't trust the system. The US will be lucky to get a 50% turn out this year. Large segments of the US public either don't care about the election or they are convinced that money and vested interests have already bought the outcome.

After all, why not have the election observed? What's the worst that can happen?

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2003
Mon, 08-09-2004 - 3:03pm
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It is probably a good but embarrassing idea. We can't be trusted to conduct a fair election, sad but true.



iVillage Member
Registered: 04-03-2003
Mon, 08-09-2004 - 3:21pm
"The US will be lucky to get a 50% turn out this year. Large segments of the US public either don't care about the election or they are convinced that money and vested interests have already bought the outcome."

Unfortunately that's the case *every* year for a long time now, especially the relatively small percentage of eligible voters actually voting. I don't feel that the 2000 election will have much impact in causing low voter turnout.

"After all, why not have the election observed? What's the worst that can happen?"

"Why not?" would be because it shouldn't be necessary, not in this country. But I have less problem with the OSCE than I would with the UN.

~mark~

Avatar for baileyhouse
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Mon, 08-09-2004 - 3:28pm
I have no problem with it. I just wonder where exactly they will be. I mean it will be difficult to cover EVERY polling place. Also are they going to intervene if they see something fishy or just observe it going on?
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Mon, 08-09-2004 - 8:30pm

I have no problem with it.


iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Tue, 08-10-2004 - 7:22am

"What I find to be sad about this is that it's really very necessary.

 


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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Tue, 08-10-2004 - 8:33am
International monitors to observe US election for first time.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=549822


This November's presidential election will be observed by international monitors amid growing concerns that faulty machines and the manipulation of voter registration lists could lead to a repeat of the Florida fiasco of 2000.


For the first time, experts from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) will observe the presidential election, after a formal invitation from the State Department. "We will come to observe, not to oversee the elections," an OSCE spokeswoman, Urdur Gunnarsdottir, said. The presence of OSCE teams is a victory for campaigners who have raised the possibility that civil rights violations - which they say happened in the 2000 election - could be repeated. In July, 13 Democrats in the House of Representatives wrote to the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, asking him to send observers.


After Mr Annan rejected their request, saying the Bush administration must make the application, the Democrats appealed to the Secretary of State, Colin Powell.


Paul Kelly, an assistant Secretary of State, told the Democrats: "OSCE members, including the United States, agreed in 1990 in Copenhagen to allow fellow members to observe elections in one another's countries."


The OSCE, based in Poland, has 55 members and has sent teams to observe more than 150 elections. Many of its missions are in fledgling democracies and countries where free and fair elections are new.


Campaigners in the US are desperate to avoid a repeat of 2000, when problems with voter rolls, ballot designs and recounts in Florida led to law suits. Ultimately, the Supreme Court in effect selected the nation's President.


The team from the OSCE will not be the only election observers. The activist group Global Exchange is organising independent international election monitors to travel to the US twice, first in September to study computer voting machines, voter registration, disenfranchisement, campaign finance and other issues, and again for the election itself.

cl-Libraone~

 


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