Foreign Election Observers in U.S. to Increase Tenfold Since 2012

Cybercast News Service ^ | August 24, 2016 | 4:09 AM EDT | Patrick Goodenough

[Olog-hai]

When Americans went to the polls four years ago, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) deployed 44 observers, a quarter of whom came from countries deemed by a leading democracy watchdog to be “not free” or “partly free.”

This year, the OSCE plans to send more than ten times that number — and some civil rights groups in the U.S. say even that won’t be enough.

Following a “needs assessment” visit earlier this year, the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) decided to send 100 long-term and 400 short-term observers to monitor the November 8 election. The former will follow the electoral process across the nation while the latter will monitor Election Day itself. …

[zeugma]

I welcome the foreign election observers. Maybe they can teach us something useful, like how to require IDs, or how to use purple ink for fingers or something.

[EQAndyBuzz]

This is a magicians trick. The observers are there as a diversion while the real cheating goes on right in front of everyone’s eyes.

When accused, the rats will say, “but we had observers there so there couldn’t possibly be any cheating.”