Texas AG Abbott Threatens Foreign Election Observers with Arrest

Houston Chronicle ^ | 10/25/2012

[SeekAndFind]

AUSTIN – State Attorney General Greg Abbott's admonition that international election observers – part of what the Texas Secretary of State's office called a long-standing exchange program to promote learning – could be criminally prosecuted if they overstep Texas law was deemed "unacceptable" by the group's director.

The flap was prompted when Abbott wrote a letter to Ambassador Daan Everts at the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights in the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

The Republican attorney general, in a press release announcing the letter, noted the group is "a United Nations partner." Some conservatives and tea party groups have been vocal in their suspicion toward the United Nations.

Abbott said in the letter that the ambassador reportedly had met "with a group of organizations that have filed lawsuits challenging election integrity laws enacted by the Texas Legislature," including Project Vote, which he described as being "closely affiliated with ACORN."

Abbott wrote that Project Vote and other organizations had said in a letter to Everts that OSCE had identified Voter ID laws as a barrier to voting rights, urging the organization to monitor states that had enacted them.

"The OSCE may be entitled to its opinions about Voter ID laws, but your opinion is legally irrelevant in the United States, where the Supreme Court has already determined that Voter ID laws are constitutional," Abbott wrote.

Texas' Voter ID law has been blocked by a federal three-judge panel, citing its effect on the poor, racial minorities and Latinos.

Abbott concluded his letter by saying the Texas Election Code governs all election participants; that the organization's representatives are not authorized to enter a polling place; and that it "may be a criminal offense for OSCE's representatives to maintain a presence within 100 feet of a polling place's entrance."

[sockmonkey]

[Bshaw]

Why is there only one state left? Well, maybe Ken Cucinelli from VA, but few others have the stones to stand up anymore!

Bravo Texas!

[NeverForgetBataan]

“Texas has yet to learn submission to any oppression, come from what source it may.” - Sam Houston

[eartick]

Get ‘em Abbott. Never back down. Never back up.

“I have answered the demand with a cannon shot, and our flag still waves proudly from the walls. I shall never surrender nor retreat”............ Willian Barrett Travis from the Alamo 1836

[BerniesFriend]

and please..when these jerks are arrested..don’t put them in any holding cell..put them with Big Bubba Mankill and the like..imho

[Feckless]

The threat of criminal sanctions against OSCE/ODIHR observers is unacceptable," he said. "The United States, like all countries in the OSCE, has an obligation to invite ODIHR observers to observe its elections."

Ask a bunch of dead Mexican murderers what Texas thinks about International Law, the UN, and the overreaching US Federal Gubbmint....

Abbott just secured my vote for any office he chooses to run for.

[353FMG]

Having courage and loving our country is politically incorrect these days.

This one-world BS did not start with 0 but it is getting more emphasis today. Hopefully Romney will change all that, and if he doesn’t, to the dustbin of history he and his memory should go.

In the meantime, if they have a public hanging of these UN “observers” downtown Houston, I will make sure that I have a front row seat and I will drink a Shiner Bock for these a-holes.