I've seen a lot of comments about getting the UN in to monitor our elections. According to this
SF Chron article from a few weeks ago, some legislators requested that the UN monitor our elections, but the UN has demurred:
Lee and the other House members told U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan that "the right of U.S. citizens to vote in free and fair elections is again in jeopardy." U.N. policy, however, prohibits the body from observing a nation's election unless asked by the country's government -- "not just a few elected officials," U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe said.
And now I understand what UN critics mean by "toothless" and "ineffectual"...
Oh yeah, the Carter Center isn't going to help either:
A spokeswoman for the Georgia-based Carter Center, founded by former President Jimmy Carter, said that even though the group is nonpartisan, Carter's affiliation with the Democratic Party "could be perceived as detracting from our ability to be impartial here."
The organizations that will be keeping an eye on things:
The San Francisco human rights organization Global Exchange is inviting more than two dozen international voting experts to observe pre-election conditions and issue a report before election day. Votewatch, a nonpartisan outfit in Burlingame, will be recruiting several hundred volunteers to measure the accuracy of different voting systems.
For the first time in its history, the 200,000-member Common Cause "has made election monitoring a major project," said spokeswoman Mary Boyle. The liberal People for the American Way has been working for three years to recruit "several thousand" poll-watching lawyers and "tens of thousands" of volunteers, most stationed in two dozen key states, said President Ralph Neas.
Some links where you can send your turkee to support these guys or volunteer some time:
Common Cause
Global Exchange
People for the American Way
VoteWatch