This voter fraud stuff may have legs

[eek.]

Well fook me, the most critical places for the entire Presidential Election, and there were no international observers in ohio and Florida.

The OSCE sent 92 observers to monitor the electoral process across the United States.
However, they were barred by state law from polling places in Washington DC, Florida and Ohio.

No paper trail and no observers. Oh dear.

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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=629 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD colSpan=3>US vote 'mostly free and fair'




</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=416><!-- S BO --><!-- S IIMA --><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=203 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>

Observers said queues at polling stations were too long



</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!-- E IIMA -->The US elections "mostly met" standards for freedom and fairness, international observers have said.


Observers from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said the presidential and congressional elections reflected a "long democratic tradition".

They praised the "professionalism and dedication" of state and local officials.

The observers had received widespread allegations of fraud and voter suppression ahead of the elections but they were unable to substantiate the claims.

However, they said the queues at polls were too long.

"Significant delays at the polling station are likely to deter some voters and may restrict the right to vote," the OSCE said in a preliminary report.

It also warned that electoral reforms passed in response to the problems of the 2000 elections needed to be reviewed.

In 2002, the US Congress passed the Help America Vote Act (HAVA).

The act called for modernisation of voting equipment, state-wide voter databases to ensure the accuracy of the electoral rolls, and provisional ballots to allow citizens who believed they were eligible to vote a chance to vote.

"HAVA addressed problems identified during the 2000 elections. However, it was also a political compromise, which left a number of questions to be addressed in its implementation," the OSCE observers reported.

Their greatest concern was with confusion and lack of clear guidelines with respect to provisional ballots.

'Orderly and peaceful'

The OSCE sent 92 observers to monitor the electoral process across the United States.

<!-- S IIMA --><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=203 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>

The observers found no evidence of fraud or voter suppression



</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!-- E IIMA -->However, they were barred by state law from polling places in Washington DC, Florida and Ohio.

New Mexico also has laws limiting access to polling place by non-voters, but the state sent an escort with the OSCE delegation.

"Election day proceeded in an orderly and peaceful manner," the OSCE observers reported.

"[The elections] were conducted in an environment that reflects a long democratic tradition, including institutions governed by rule of law, free and professional media and civil society involved in all aspects of the election process."

The observers recommended that state election laws be harmonised to allow for greater transparency and universal access to both international and domestic non-partisan observers.

Monitors did find problems but not they were not widespread enough to call the result into question.

Before the elections, the observers had received several claims of fraud and voter suppression, especially among minorities.

The OSCE monitors said they were "concerned that the widespread nature of these allegations may undermine confidence in the electoral process."

However, monitors said they were not "provided with first-hand evidence to substantiate them or to demonstrate that such practices were widespread or systematic".

There had been fears widespread challenges over voter eligibility and to protracted litigation after the vote, but observers said these fears were not realised.

Some anger with observers

The US state department invited the OSCE to monitor the elections as part of agreements among the 55 OSCE member states, which include the US.

Some conservative groups had objected to the role of the monitors.

They said that because Florida Democrat Alcee Hastings was president of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly that the monitoring would be partisan and biased.

"All states - Florida in particular - are in danger of having their electoral proceedings corrupted by Hastings and OSCE," said Tom DeWeese, president of the conservative American Policy Centre ahead of the elections.

An OSCE spokeswoman said the role of the election monitors was "to observe, not interfere". It was the first time that OSCE had sent a full delegation to monitor US elections in light of the controversy over the 2000 US election. The organisation had sent a limited delegation to monitor the 2002 midterm elections in Florida.

<!-- E BO -->http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/americas/2004/vote_usa_2004/3987655.stm


</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

 

[eek.]

So, on building or knocking down the the case for circumstantial evidence.

Does anyone know if these Ohio/Florida state laws banning outside observers were enacted by the Republicans in the last few years?

 

[eek.]

Going to do some digging.

The righties claim the OSCE was allowed into Florida...
http://truthnews.com/world/2002100095.htm

In fact the righties were pretty pissed about it
http://www.military.com/NewContent/0,13190,FreedomAlliance_110702,00.html

Yet they omit to mention observers were barred from going inside polling stations.

 

[eek.]

Some observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), a Europe-wide security and rights forum, were barred from entering some polling stations in the United States, one of them said.

"We were not allowed to enter polling stations," said Soeren Soendergaard, a Danish parliamentary deputy.

"Although we were officially invited to follow the (US presidential) election, the message was not passed on to the polling stations," he told the Danish news agency Ritzau.

He said he had been personally refused admission at three out of four polling stations in Columbus, Ohio.

"It's the limit of arrogance," complained the left-wing deputy, representing the 55-nation OSCE, a pan-European body of which the US is a member and whose duties include monitoring elections to ensure fair play.

Another Danish OSCE observer, conservative Carina Christensen, reported less serious irregularities in Jacksonville, Florida , but said police had been called when she tried to visit a Republican office.

She and three other delegation members had been well received by local representatives of the Democrat Party who had ensured their access to polling stations.

But Republicans were less welcoming. "We were denied entry to a local Republican office in Orlando," she told Ritzau: "They called the police, saying they had received guidelines from Washington to do so."

Socialist deputy Kamel Qureshi said Americans appeared basically annoyed at the presence of foreign observers.

The OSCE team was invited by the State Department. They were not conducting full-scale monitoring but collecting impressions of American democratic practice for a later report.

The State Department on Monday downplayed their presence.

"The presence of OSCE election observers we don't find troubling at all," said State Department spokesman Adam Ereli. "This is something that all OSCE members routinely do, so this is no exception."

Although US officials have always issued invitations and had foreign observers before, it is "new in the sense that this is the first time they've been at a presidential election, and they've deployed or they've been here in these numbers," Ereli said.

Their visit has raised the anger of conservative US commentators and politicians, angry that the US electoral process would be scrutinized like an election in Ukraine or Azerbaijan .

The OSCE mission had made it known that they would look particularly at electronic voting machines in states such as Florida .

The machines have been criticized as being unreliable and vulnerable to hacking.

The OSCE said in September it believed the weakness in US elections apparent in 2000 would not be fully corrected in time for Tuesday's vote.

The OSCE is heavily involved throughout the Balkans, where the former Yugoslav republics are trying to overcome the damage wrought by the wars of the 1990s and prepare themselves for membership of NATO and the European Union.

http://washington.news.designerz.com/foreign-monitors-barred-from-some-us-polling-stations-osce-observer.html

 

[eek.]

A group of distinguished international election experts who will observe the Nov. 2 U.S. election have not yet received responses from some local electoral officials in Ohio and Florida to their requests to observe polling sites on election day. The observers hope that their requests will receive a positive response, pointing out that non-partisan domestic and international observation is practiced worldwide as a way of creating transparency and boosting voter confidence.

The election observers are part of a non-partisan, non-governmental delegation sponsored by the human rights group Global Exchange. A 20-person pre-electoral observation team was in the U.S. Sept. 13-27 investigating a range of issues in Arizona, Georgia, Florida, Missouri, Ohio and Washington, D.C. A second team of 14 observers from 10 countries will arrive in the U.S. on October 29 to observe through election day.

The international observation team has already received permission from officials in Boone County, Missouri, the City of St. Louis, and Leon County, Florida—where Tallahassee is located—to observe polls and tabulation centers. In Cuyahoga County—home of Cleveland, OH—the observers have permission to observe the tabulation center.

But officials in Franklin County, Ohio and Ft. Lauderdale, Broward, and Miami-Dade counties in Florida have not responded to repeated requests to allow international observation. At the same time, Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell has refused poll access to the independent observers invited by Global Exchange while offering access to observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). "From my long experience of international election observation, my suspicions are immediately aroused when officials appear to want to deny observers access to polling sites," said Owen Thomas, Chief Executive of Electoral Reform Services in London and himself a former OSCE observer. "Experience in countries around the world has shown that the presence of outside, non-partisan observers can play a key role in boosting voter confidence. Transparency at the polls and tabulation centers is key to that confidence. International observation throws light on the workings of democracy. Why would anyone be against that?"

In its recent report on electoral conditions in the U.S., the first team of observers noted that partisan administration of elections is not the international norm and recommended opening the voting process to non-partisan observers. The observers wrote: "The delegation strongly endorses the recommendations of the OSCE, the Carter Center for Human Rights, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and other experts bodies that call for independent, non-partisan poll watchers, both domestic and international, to be welcomed at the polls and tabulation centers in 2004 and beyond." To learn more about the independent, non-governmental, international observation of the U.S. elections, please visit: www.fairelection.us. ###

http://www.globalexchange.org/update/press/2638.html

 

[eek.]

It sounds like the equivalent of an internet casino company is in charge of the voting system.

Roughly 50 percent of Floridians now vote using DREs, which are used in 15 of the state’s more populous counties. These machines are, in principle, a major advance in voting technology. They offer huge advantages in election administration and improve level of service offered to non-English speaking voters and those with disabilities. In principle, the machines should also offer greater accuracy. In practice, DRE’s have malfunctioned in varying degrees in every election since implementation and do not generate a voter verified paper record. In addition, three private companies manufacture the DRE touch-screen machines used in Florida and these machines’ source coding is the “intellectual property” of these private companies—therefore the source code is maintained as a “trade secret.” Open-source coding is available and is a public resource, which allows for greater transparency and accountability.


http://www.fairelection.us/observers_report1.htm#_Toc86076069

 

[RobFunk]

http://www.blackboxvoting.org

 

[eek.]

NASED sounds like the sort of organisation that 'certifys' Internet casinos...

 

[eek.]

Ohio doesn't sound too bad.

As a result of these developments in Ohio, the voting systems throughout the state will remain essentially the same as in the 2000 election, with the majority of voters (70 percent, or 68 of 88 counties) using punch card ballots.

http://www.fairelection.us/observers_report1.htm#_Toc86076072

So Ohio sounds fine.

Of the 4 diebold machine counties I looked at, 2 were Bush, 2 were Kerry.

:coffeetim

It looks like you just have to get a decent standardised auditable system and you're sorted.

 

[Shotgun]

Eek, Dems and GOPers both had lawyers in there. I'm not sure why others thought it was their right to observe; should the AFL-CIO, ACLU, Gay Porn Stars for Bush all have been granted the right to gawk at voters?

That would have been one crowded polling place. Where would the Democrat and GOP have put all their lawyers?

 

[stacilu]

Always had a difficult time accepting "conspiracy theories" they
usually originiate by nut cases from the extremes of the political
spectrum. However, in this case I could believe it to be possible
if the conspirators would have access to the technology and the
expertise necessary to pull it off. Not for one moment, would I
believe that Rove and his stooges wouldn't accept this scenario
if they thought it possible and virtually fail safe.

What would happen if such was the case? An American patriot would
find himself in quite a predicament. As much as you would like to
see it exposed and corrected you would be much afraid of a meltdown of our Republic. One could imagine complete chaos and
anarchy with marshall law being introduced. Who would be in charge
if the military is reluctant to relinquish authority? Very few G
Washingtons, we all know power is very seldom handed over
peacefully. Naturally, this is an opinion, but I don't see something
like this ending well, even if only remotely possible. I will go with
the assumption that this is just a very unlikely possibility and
pray that our Democracy will never have to face such a test.