Posted on 08/07/2004 1:36:44 PM PDT by wagglebee
WASHINGTON – When 13 Democratic members of the U.S. Congress asked United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to send election monitors to the U.S. this fall, the move outraged many Republicans and other proponents of national sovereignty.
When those same 13 Democratic members of Congress were turned down by Annan, they took their request to Secretary of State Colin Powell – again to the shock of many Republicans and those who warn about foreign entanglements.
Yesterday, those 13 Democratic House members got their surprising answer from the State Department – the administration will indeed invite foreign election monitors to observe the U.S. elections in November.
Assistant Secretary of State Paul V. Kelly, who handles legislative affairs for the department, affirmed the invitation this week in a letter to the 13 House members. They had requested U.N. monitors for this year's elections in an effort to avoid the charges of voting irregularities that plagued the 2000 election, the closest in history.
Now, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the largest regional organization in the world with 55 participating nations, will monitor the U.S. election on Nov. 2. Members include Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Spain and the United States.
"OSCE members, including the United States, agreed in 1990 in Copenhagen to allow fellow members to observe elections in one another's countries," Kelly wrote. "Consistent with this commitment, the United States has already invited the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) to observe the November 2, 2004, presidential elections."
The congressional initiative was spearheaded by Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas. She asked Powell to make an official request that the U.N. provide observers for the Nov. 2 elections in the United States to "ensure free and fair elections."
Previously, the 13 Democratic congressmen, led by Johnson, sent a letter July 8 to the U.N. general secretary requesting the presence of U.N. representatives in every county of the country during the voting process and any vote recount afterwards.
The U.N. immediately responded that such a request could not be accepted unless it came from the U.S. government. Otherwise, a spokesman said, it could be considered"intervention in a country's sovereignty."
"As legislators, we should guarantee the American people that our country will not experience another nightmare like the 2000 presidential elections," the members of Congress said in their letter to Annan.
In her letter to Powell, Johnson expressed grave concerns regarding electoral system reforms that were not undertaken after the 2000 election.
Recalling the contentious Florida vote count in 2000, the lawmakers urged the U.N. to "ensure free and fair elections in America."
"As lawmakers, we must assure the people of America that our nation will not experience the nightmare of the 2000 presidential election," Johnson said in the letter. "This is the first step in making sure that history does not repeat itself."
Meanwhile, Rep. Corrine Brown, a Florida Democrat, announced that the Democratic Institutions and Human Rights Office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has confirmed that it will be present in the United States – specifically, in Florida – on Election Day.
However, state election authorities in Florida have already announced that such observers are not to be allowed access to the voting process and, in any case, they would have to remain at a distance of more than 50 feet from the polls.
Besides Johnson, the congressional signers to the original U.N. letters included Julia Carson of Indiana, Jerrold Nadler, Edolphus Towns, Joseph Crowley and Carolyn B. Maloney, all of New York, Raul Grijalva of Arizona, Corrine Brown of Florida, Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland, Danny K. Davis of Illinois, and Michael M. Honda and Barbara Lee of California.
Actually it's kind of interesting that he's doing it at all. It tells me that the president is expecting some dirty tricks and is heading the democrats off.<< BULLSHIT! Interesting my ass. This is not what I fought for!
Our President is a globalist and he feels that the UN Charter is a better deal for government officials and large corporations than the US Constitution is.
Just the very mention of having foreigners inspect our voting procedures, I don't care if they are UN approved or not, should be considered a traitorous act.
Get your books out NOW and show me word for word where the Founders discussed the idea to bring foreign citizens into the US to inspect whether or not our elections meet their standards!
When in the hell are you going to take off those damn blinders and see WTF is happening to America under this "great" Republican Party?
Even gdammned Kerry didn't mention something as evil as this idea!
>>interesting<<
You are SICK!
But its not the UN...I dont know where you are getting that from....That is not in the story as I recall...
Just think about it...Bush is saying he can win even with people from other countries prowling around. Hell they would have been there ANYWAY, but at this point and time it is Bush that INVITED them and not Kerry that whined and cried to get them there....Bush is being confident in the matter and is taking away Kerry's concerns (if you want to call them that) and his talking point.
As I said it is a brilliant strategic move when you dont look at it through partisan glasses.
But DoughtyOne, it's all part of a Master Plan doncha know!
Jacques Kerry thanks you.
Many here make the fatal assumption that the UN types being invited in are fair and impartial - and actually catch the Dems in their customary massive vote fraud. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The UN people are transnational globalists whose goal is to destroy the American nation-state. The Democrats are their allies (and sadly, so are many Republicans). If anything, they will facilitate vote fraud on an even more massive scale.
Yes, there has been massive election fraud in the US, almost always in Democrat controlled districts. In some states it is estimated that literally hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens and other non-citizens are voting. States and municipalities are legally forbidden to ask the citizenship status of people registering to vote in many places, many of which also explicity allow non-citizens to vote (ostensibly only in local elections - hahaha). Has there been a single challenge in the courts from the Republicans about this? Nope. Bob Dornan tried a few years back was was told to not persue it by the Republican leadership. Have there been any serious, sustained challenges in court to manifest vote fraud in major cities around the country? No.
I have to wonder if Bush actually wishes to throw the election to Kerry. Kerry comes off the convention with no bounce, he's getting skewered by exposure of his arrogant personality and treasonous political record - but the race is still close. This is really quite insane.
Fine then. Dont vote for Bush and give the election to Kerry. See if I care.
What you don't know is that this same watchdog group has the US AS A MEMBER!! We watch their elections. They have been around I am sure in previous elections.
CLEAN UP YOUR LANGUAGE THE NEXT TIME YOU WRITE AN EMAIL TO ME TOO OR YOU WILL BE OFF OF FREEREPUBLIC!!
If the French are monitoring your polling booth, Jaques Kerry will also thank you.
I think that they should be steered to Chicago, St. Louis, inner city Philly, Newark NJ, Dakota Indian reservations and other spots where in the past there have been so many rigged and fraudulent votes that the Republicans have not had the political courage and perspecacity to stop.
This is wrong.
This is simply an end-run around Kerry. This group was already here in the 2002 elections, and nobody said a word about it.
It's better than having to fight over the UN. Sure, some of these people are the same, but otherwise, we were going to have a nasty fight with Kerry howling about Bush's unwillingness to let the UN in.
My suggestion to you is go to your local GOP headquarters and volunteer to be a poll watcher. I'm going to do it. Anybody can do it, and we really need them this year (just to make sure all Dem voters are breathing).
Good post.
I really seriously doubt that any foreigner will be able to change a vote...
But go ahead, get yourself disgusted over this little issue and not vote, that will help Kerry more than some Frog watching a polling location.
Don't let the wing nuts get to you. Someone could post a thread about a business called Umbrellas Naturale and it could turn into a thread of it being connected to the UN somehow.
You didn't answer my question!
What flag do you think you are fighting for?
The big beautiful blue UN (in your eyes) flag or our torn and tattered, proud and wonderful Old Glory?
I agree. President Bush has once again taken the issue away from the Dems.
Why should we worry......it is the other side who cheat and try to undermine the process.
This November will be a hoot! The Blue Hats might even learn something about the election process.
You stink like a chicken coop!
I won't, but I will combat their stupidity with a little common sense.
They fly off the handle at every little thing and I still think this is a great strategic move by Bush....think logically not emotionally!!! Liberals want you to think with your emotions!! It is kinda like the dark side of the force!!!
I think that they should be steered to the Grand Canyon.
Why don't you go do something useful like go down and volunteer to be a poll watcher? ANybody can do it, and we need all GOP poll watchers possible. You have to be a registered Republican, but other than that, there are no requirements except acceptance as an official poll watcher. You go with one or two other people, and usually swap off for a couple of hours a time with another team.
That would be a productive thing to do. If you're not registered, try to encourage a GOP friend to do it.
You need to calm down.
Let's see here, which flag am I for when I am in Iraq? Is the UN in charge here? UMMM NO. You are asinine and people like you only give the Kerry crowd ammo to use against the other 85% of the conservatives in this country.
Get your facts straight before you go insane. And take some Ridalin or something.....
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