Somewhat reassuring that someone else is keeping an eye on us ...
Observers Foresee Snags in U.S. Election
A five-member team from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a 55-state security group invited by the Bush administration, also pointed to problems with voter registration lists and provisional and absentee ballots, allegations of voter intimidation and slow implementation of the Help America Vote Act.
``In general, the nationwide replacement of voting equipment, inspired by the disputes witnessed during the 2000 elections, primarily in Florida, may potentially become a source of even greater controversy during the forthcoming elections,'' said the 11-page report.
Again from
The Guardian:
The OSCE observers were in the United States from Sept. 7-10. A larger group will return for the election and focus on the potential problems noted in Tuesday's report. Among them:
-Slow implementation of the Help America Vote Act of 2002, which authorized $3.86 billion to replace outdated machines and reform election procedures.
-Poorly maintained voter registration lists and a hodgepodge of procedures for handling absentee and provisional balisenfranchisement and postelection litigation. Provisional ballots are a new feature, meant to allow anyone who shows up at the polls to vote even if their name isn't on precinct lists.
-The report criticized steps by states to allow military and overseas voters to fax rather than mail their completed ballots, calling them inconsistent ``with the principle of the secrecy of the vote.''
-The observers said the scale of complaints about intimidation of minority voters was difficult to assess but that ``such allegations were repeated by Democratic Party representatives, while the Republican Party officials did not seem to share these concerns.''
I wonder what they will say about the SCOTUS when they hand down the results?
The AP piece as reported in The Guardian provides the following URL of the OSCE:
http://www.osce.org/