Foreign Observers Will Monitor U.S. Fall Elections

T

TheBluesMan

Moderator Emeritus
CNN Story
International team to monitor presidential election
Observers will be part of OSCE's human rights office

From David de Sola
CNN

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.

<snip> See link above for more details.
Click to expand...

I am outraged by this. I urge all members to contact the State Department and register a complaint. Here is the URL of their contact form: http://contact-us.state.gov/ask_form_cat/ask_form_secretary.html

I sent them this:
I am appalled that the Secretary of State has invited OSCE observers to monitor our Fall 2004 elections. The United States of America is a sovereign country and opening up our elections (which are beyond reproach in their fairness) to foreign scrutiny will lead to de facto foreign control of our democratic process.

Imagine foreign nationals trumpeting "inconsistencies" and "inequities" in the press. If we weren't the laughing stock of the world after Gore's attempted hijacking of the electoral process in 2000, we most assuredly will be in 2004. Who will the observers complain to? The State Department? What will you do about it? You are not authorized by the constitution to have anything to do with domestic elections! Will they complain to the U.N? NATO? The E.U? To what end?!?

Their presence in our land is not needed and not wanted. I urge you to rescind this invitation to the OSCE and allow our elections to go on peacefully as they have for 216 years.

Sincerely,

David Miller
Click to expand...
 
The beginning of the end. We're recognizing a foreign/supernational entity as being a better arbiter of our election process than we are.
 
Letter sent, also noting that the conventions authorizing the OSCE are NOT legally binding, while the Constitution of the US IS!!! :mad:
 
350,000,000+ people spread across 3,610,000+ square miles, thousands if not tens of thousands of voting locations. Exactly what are these unwanted UN observers supposed to "observe" that will tell them anything about how the election is run?
 
Other than setting a precedent what can these observers do?

I'll find it funny if the observers are from Cuba, China, Zimbabwe et all.

'Yeah, we're from the UN and we're here to show you how to vote properly...'
 
If I see one of these "observers" in my voting location, it will take a great deal of self-control (perhaps more than I have) to not get "in his face" about his presence not being welcome. Nothing even approaching threatening, but I'll make my opinion known... and LOUD!!!
 
Well, as noted, there's not much they can do, or really observe.
Probably they'll be taken to a few 'ideal' voting locations to make them happy. Then, out to the club.
And the whole mess could have some counterpropaganda value overseas, the last elections controversy, has been routinely used by overseas press who are not sympathetic to US policies.
Anyway, not the first time. During the civil war, British and other military attaches were watching the various goings on, including the politics.
 
Maybe if it's really close at the end they will step in and determine which person most Americans "really" wanted . This way in the future both candidates will only have to submit a resume to the UN and we will be informed who the next President will be .
 
Well, as noted, there's not much they can do, or really observe.
Click to expand...
I disagree.

First they can "do" the following: they can speak with more percieved authority by fact of their very presence. Normally the Marxist wonks in the U.N. [and affiliated organizations] spew their propagandist lies from a great distance. In this case they will have an actual presence at the polls in this country to bolster their usual lies.

Secondly there is a lot they could observe. They could observe Democrats paying illegal aliens/welfare queens and other parasites for their votes. They could note that dead native Americans/Irish-Americans/[insert your favorite ______-American here] vote often and early in sewers like Boston, Chicago, D.C., Los Anghellees, South Dakota a.k.a. Dascheltown, etc... They could even bring it to the attention of enough people that something might even be done to STOP IT!

They could - if they so wished - observe Democrat operatives dumping the ballots of overseas military members because as every Demonrat worthy of the name knows, those poor benighted "dupes" of Bush don't "really" know what is best for them. After all, if the poor bastards were "good" liberals/progressives/activists, they would be busy hating America; not defending it with their sweat blood and tears.

The fact of the matter is there is a lot that they could "do". There is even more that they could "observe".

In the end all they will do is further their own lifelong efforts to undermine and destroy people that are a thousand-fold their BETTERS!!! And the sad part is how few traitor rats it took to facilitate them. :mad: :mad: :mad:
 
I hope the protesters here are aware that this is something US observers have been doing in *other* sovereign countries for decades.

I don't like the "U.N.-ification" of the USA one bit, but it seems hypocritical to me to say that we can do it to them -- supposedly "for them," not "to them" -- but they can't do it to us.

- 0-
 
I am fighting mad about this

We are heading straight down the path to become a 3rd world country. If I see one of these "obsrvers", he/she will hear me as I can be LOUD also. :mad:
 
In all, not much percieved authority anyway. And if they want to spread black propaganda, that can be done without even needing observers. The problem that a sizeable proportion of Americans don't vote, is enough to undermine perceptions about our system. Both in and outside the US.
And welfare queens, do have the right to vote. Paying them is questionable, but both parties have done such things.
 
I think responses to this question well establishes who the tinfoil hats might be here. Be skeptical. Be vigilant. Don't be paranoid. Check the facts.

Referring to the UN is not accurate. The UN declined to participate out of respect for sovereignty. OSCE is the treaty group involved. They were here in 2002 and also covered the Governor recall balloting in CA. The only thing different this time is that politically sensitive gun owners found out about it and are making too much of it. Basically it is a lame excuse for UN bashing, Bush bashing, and LP campaigning. If not in favor of the OSCE treaty and participating as a signatory, that would be the real issue and valid basis of complaint. Expect that isolationsists will have a field day with the issue.

Observers will do as much harm as US observers do when they "monitor" foreign elections. Do we have a double standard? Is our signature on the treaty worth the ink used?
 
In all, not much percieved authority anyway.
Click to expand...
Not the point I was making. Regardless of their percieved authority now, they will obtain more perceived authority by virtue of having been invited in.
And if they want to spread black propaganda, that can be done without even needing observers.
Click to expand...
See above
And welfare queens, do have the right to vote.
Click to expand...
Didn't say they didn't.
Paying them is questionable, but both parties have done such things.
Click to expand...
Paying them to vote is an outrage. Nothing about paying them to vote is questionable. It's illegal. Not questionable. I've never seen or heard of Republican/Libertarian/or for that matter Green Party members/operatives paying them to vote. Democrats do, and they are proud of it. How do you think that places like Chicago, Boston, NYC, Los Anghellees, San Fransicko, and other liberal turdbowls got that way? Magic?


Observers will do as much harm as US observers do when they "monitor" foreign elections.
Click to expand...
As if monitoring an election in a country where, like as not, the participants are likely to skin their neighbor to have a piece of flesh to write their vote on, and "monitoring" the elections in the most powerful and civilized nation on Earth is one and the same. Please :rolleyes:

So the traitors we elected signed a treaty. Don't expect me to celebrate. Equating my country with countries that have dung beetle on the daily menu makes me gag.
 
As if monitoring an election in a country where, like as not, the participants are likely to skin their neighbor to have a piece of flesh to write their vote on, and "monitoring" the elections in the most powerful and civilized nation on Earth is one and the same. Please
Click to expand...

It's not limited to third world countries. Quite the contrary. Check to see who participates in the treaty. The focus is on Europe.

See OSCE information

Albania Andorra Armenia
Austria Azerbaijan Belarus
Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria
Canada Croatia Cyprus
Czech Republic Denmark Estonia
Finland France Georgia
Germany Greece Holy See
Hungary Iceland Ireland
Italy Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan
Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania
Luxembourg Macedonia Malta
Moldova Monaco Netherlands
Norway Poland Portugal
Romania Russian Federation San Marino
Serbia and Montenegro Slovak Republic Slovenia
Spain Sweden Switzerland
Tajikistan Turkey Turkmenistan
Ukraine United Kingdom United States of America
Uzbekistan

Mediterranean Partners for Cooperation

Algeria Egypt Israel
Jordan Morocco Tunisia

Partners for Cooperation

Afghanistan Japan Republic of Korea
Thailand
 
Pat Buchanan stated that in 50 years, the USA would be a third world country. I thought he was totally wrong, I predicted it for 20 years.

And, now we are ALREADY a civil-war/economically riddled third world country who's elections have to be observed!

Never thought it went into the sewer that fast.
 
When I first read this I was annoyed and thought foreigners don't have a place to 'oversee' elections - that country should organise itself, but then I though have we not done that (forcefully) in other countrys to ensure a fair election? So maybe it's not a bad idea this time round to make sure theres no complaints about *anomalies.
 
Who control election?

13 US Congressmen have asked help from UN to monitor US election. How can so said "democrtic" US get into such a plight? Rigging in election now is so obvious even high ranking politicians realize the gravity of the question.

People who vote don't decide whom be elected.
People who count the vote do.

The people who control the intelligence in US decide whom been elected. That's what happened in Florida 2000 election in which Inside group selected Bush. And in Demo's Primary in 2004 in which they dropped Howard Dean.

In a rigged election, they could move votes by thousands.

Quote, ""DELAND, Fla., Nov. 11 - Something very strange happened on election night to Deborah Tannenbaum, a Democratic Party official in Volusia County. At 10 p.m., she called the county elections department and learned that Al Gore was leading George W. Bush 83,000 votes to 62,000. But when she checked the county's Web site for an update half an hour later, she found a startling development: Gore's count had dropped by 16,000 votes, while an obscure Socialist candidate had picked up 10,000--all because of a single precinct with only 600 voters."

- Washington Post Sunday , November 12, 2000 ; Page A22

Re: "Yes. Something very strange happened in Volusia County on election night November 2000, the night that first Gore won Florida, then Bush, and then as everybody can so well remember there was a tie.
Something strange indeed. But what exactly? In the above report ( click for full version), written days after the election, hotshot Washington Post reporter Dana Milbank goes on to attribute the strange 16,022 negative vote tally from Volusia's precinct 216 to an apparently innocent cause.
"…. faulty 'memory cards' in the machines caused the 16,000-vote disappearance on election night. The glitch was soon fixed," he wrote.

But thanks to recent investigations into Black Box Voting by Washington State writer Bev Harris we now know this explanation is not correct. In fact it is not even in the ballpark.
Entire article

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0310/S00211.htm
 
I really have to say...

So what?

This isn't the first time foreign observers have been in the United States for a recent election.

The by elections 2 years ago were observed, and not a peep was heard.

It really amuses me that people register this as the end of the world, or at least the American form of Democracy.

These people are not being arbiters of anything. They're not deciding anything. They're not commanding anything. They're not empowered to do anything.

Remember, while the Constitution mandates the schedule for elections, the states mandate just how the elections will be conducted. Florida has already stated that any observers down there will be very restricted in the access they have to the polls.

I've heard a lot of really fantastic stuff over the past few days regarding this non-event, a lot of it based on factually wrong BS.

The UN is behind this, and it's simply a precursor to rapid seizure of control of the US.

UN observers will be IN the voting booths, and will have the ability to change our votes to something more "suitable."

Armed UN "peace keeping" forces will be stationed INSIDE the polling places.

The UN will use this as a means of passing crushing economic sanctions against the United States.


It just boggles my mind some of the delusional fantasies I've heard over the past few days.

The BIGGEST and I mean BIGGEST threat to American democracy comes from within, folks, in the form of millions of Americans who can't be bothered to get up off the couch and vote.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top