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Observers could monitor US elections
Posted: Tue 10 Aug, 2004 6:30 pm
by Ex-URNU-Student
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections20 ... 30,00.html
Tuesday August 10, 2004
After the shambles of the hanging chads in 2000, it emerged today that this year's US presidential election might be the first in the country's history to be monitored by international observers.
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) - which has a respected track record of monitoring elections, mainly in developing countries - revealed it had been approached by the US state department. 
The Vienna-based OSCE said it would send a team to the US next month to determine whether to accept the task of monitoring the November elections.
"The whole idea is to make an overall assessment and then determine what sort of observation, if any, should be carried out," Curtis Budder, a spokesman for the OSCE's Warsaw-based human rights office, said.
The OSCE has 55 participating nations, of which the US is one. The organisation sent teams to monitor last year's gubernatorial recall election in California and the 2002 Congressional elections, Mr Budder said.
The last US presidential election, four years ago, was marred by disputed results in the close race for Florida, which led to a long drawn-out recount. A row erupted after ballots that had been punched but not totally cleanly, leaving a hanging or dimpled chad, were disqualified.
With the world watching and waiting for the results of the election, the intricacies of the system and the varieties of potentially spoiled ballots became the focus of huge media attention and a source of massive embarrassment for the US.
Since 2002, the OSCE has called on all its members to seek election observers.
Such teams usually meet with members of electoral commissions, political parties and non-governmental organisations. Mr Budder said he did not yet know exactly where the US mission would go.
The OSCE says it has sent 10,000 observers to more than 150 elections in the past 10 years. Its member countries include European nations, Russia and Canada.
And heres me thinking only banana republics needed that sort of thing![/quote]
Re: Observers could monitor US elections
Posted: Tue 10 Aug, 2004 6:51 pm
by snyder
Ex-URNU-Student wrote:And heres me thinking only banana republics needed that sort of thing!
Hey, we're talking about
Florida here.
Posted: Tue 10 Aug, 2004 8:56 pm
by Seven
We had observers here from I think it was the UN for the European elections earlier this year. Among them people from Third World countries, so it's not that strange. They were quite surprised at the low turn-out for the elections (about 39%). I wasn't....
Posted: Wed 11 Aug, 2004 9:55 pm
by Phildo
I suppose we need sort of a international vote fraud convention. So that various politcorps can trade tips and tricks and bring the fraud level up to decent international standard. Sort of an ISO for vote fraud and crooked elections. Then the inspectors could more easily verify that the fraud was occurring according to standard expectations and levels.
Posted: Thu 12 Aug, 2004 10:01 pm
by Ardennes44
Election Data Services estimates that nearly 30 percent of voters in the presidential election will not vote in systems that produce paper to be used if a recount becomes necessary.
David Dill, Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University and founder of VerifiedVoting.org, has no evidence of a conspiracy to fix the election. But, he said, "We know people would steal elections if they get the chance, and it wouldn't be hard to steal." The easiest way to commit fraud, according to Dill, would be by an insider at the company, a programmer who makes a hidden change to the software. With the current procedures, he said, there's "not a ghost of a chance" the culprit would be caught.
Posted: Thu 12 Aug, 2004 10:18 pm
by snyder
As you might imagine, Seattle has more than its share of computer geeks, and one of them in my neighborhood says the code for the electronic machines is freely available on-line. He was thinking of hacking in and screwing things up in November just to make the point.
Posted: Thu 12 Aug, 2004 11:26 pm
by ELP
Just as long as the observers wear blue U.N. helmets. That way it will give us something to aim for.
Posted: Fri 13 Aug, 2004 12:27 am
by Ardennes44
There is a bill pending in the House of Representatives that would require a voter-verified permanent record or hardcopy of every vote cast. H.R. 2239 has 150 co-sponsors. A similar bill by Bob Graham and Hillary Clinton, and co-sponsored by seven Democrats and one Independent, is pending in the Senate.