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Article

It used to be that the United States was the standard bearer for freedom and democracy, that we were the country others looked to for help and guidance on how to run a free and honest election.

But no more and it’s a very sad thing.

Due to the rise in voter suppression efforts by the Republican Party, the ACLU, NAACP and other civil rights organizations have requested that the United Nations monitor this year’s general election, in fear that millions could be harassed or even forbidden from voting.

The Organisation of Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) will deploy observers to forty states across the country to monitor the election process from voter registration to post-election administration:

“The mission will analyse the legislative framework and its implementation and will follow campaign activities, the work of the election administration and relevant government bodies, including voter registration, and the resolution of election disputes.”


This comes on the heels of efforts by True the Vote, a Tea Party backed group, to “monitor” elections in key battleground states, which amounts to little more than voter suppression through intimidation tactics and measures bordering on illegal:

Researching the registry means that True the Vote has purchased voter rolls from states and counties, then circulated the lists to their gaggle of unsupervised volunteers, who are urged to challenge the registrations of voters that think may be improperly registered. The True the Vote “work at the polls” entails training volunteers to be “poll watchers” – people to go to the polls on election day and aggressively challenge the registration, the identity, or the eligibility of prospective voters.

To “fix what needs fixing” True the Vote has also pushed legislative efforts to further restrict access to voting, including stringent new voter identification laws.

In practice, the TTV strategy has deterred people from registering to vote, created an atmosphere that frightens voters from showing up at the polls, overloaded election officials with baseless challenges, and slowed the vote by gumming up the process.


Earlier this month, True the Vote became the focus of a Congressional investigation led by Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), for their attempts to purge voter rolls and registrations. In a letter to True the Vote’s founder, Cathering Engelbrecht, Cummings wrote:

According to your website, the mission of True the Vote is “to restore integrity to the American system of electing its leaders.”1 One of your key initiatives is to train volunteers to challenge the registration of voters before elections, and to provide them with information and data about voters you want to purge from the rolls.

Unfortunately, True the Vote, its volunteers, and its affiliated groups have a horrendous record of filing inaccurate voter registration challenges, causing legitimate voters—through no fault of their own—to receive letters from local election officials notifying them that their registrations have been challenged and requiring them to take steps to remedy false accusations against them.

Multiple reviews by state and local government officials have documented voter registration challenges submitted by your volunteers based on insufficient evidence, outdated or inaccurate data, and faulty software and database capabilities. Across multiple states, government officials of both political parties have criticized your methods and work product for their lack of accuracy and reliability.

Your tactics have been so problematic that even Ohio Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted has condemned them as potentially illegal, stating:

When you cry wolf, and there’s no wolf, you undermine your credibility, and you have unjustly inconvenienced a legally registered voter, and that can border on voter intimidation.


If Jon Husted, the poster boy for voter suppression in Ohio is questioning the legality of your operation, that doesn’t say much for your organization at all.

As we’ve documented before, voter fraud in this election is being carried out by one party only – the Republican Party – the latest instance of which comes from Virginia, where a man working for Pinpoint, a Republican-contracted voter registration firm, has been arrested for destroying registrations:

Colin Small, a 23-year-old resident of Phoenixville, Pa., worked for Pinpoint, a company hired to register voters on behalf of the Republican Party of Virginia. Prosecutors charged him with four counts of destruction of voter registration applications, eight counts of failing to disclose voter registration applications and one count of obstruction of justice.


Hardly surprising since this Republican Party, in its current form, is one of the most corrupt we’ve seen in many years, and it is imperative that they be defeated. So even if you’re a disaffected Democrat who’s disillusioned with President Obama (you’re not alone, trust me), it is vital that you get out and vote. As Daniel Ellsberg stated in a recent op-ed, in which he had no illusions about the realities of this election:

To punish Obama in this particular way, on Election Day — by depriving him of votes in swing states and hence of office in favor of Romney and Ryan — would punish most of all the poor and marginal in society, and workers and middle class as well: not only in the U.S. but worldwide in terms of the economy (I believe the Republicans could still convert this recession to a Great Depression), the environment and climate change. It could well lead to war with Iran (which Obama has been creditably resisting, against pressure from within his own party). And it would spell, via Supreme Court appointments, the end of Roe v. Wade and of the occasional five to four decisions in favor of the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

[…]
In the eight to twelve close-fought states — especially Florida, Ohio, and Virginia, but also Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin — for any progressive to encourage fellow progressives and others in those states to vote for a third-party candidate is, I would say, to be complicit in facilitating the election of Romney and Ryan, with all its consequences.



Noam Chomsky recently echoed that sentiment:

“The Republican organization today is extremely dangerous, not just to this country, but to the world. It’s worth expending some effort to prevent their rise to power, without sowing illusions about the Democratic alternatives.”


So, as the Republicans attempt to steal the vote through any means necessary, the remedy to that rests with Progressives, especially disillusioned Progressives. And it can be no surprise that civil rights groups have called on objective, third-party observers to ensure the validity of this election and equal access to all voters, which are the very things Republicans are attempting prevent.

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Leerstetten, Germany

Fairly routine anymore. I think they were asked to monitor the election in Germany a few years ago as well.
   
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SE Michigan

 d-usa wrote:
Fairly routine anymore. I think they were asked to monitor the election in Germany a few years ago as well.


But they might not leave...then we'll have UN troops occupying our country...after that they'll take the guns, and finally they'll tattoo us with the mark of the beast.

I have no problem with them monitoring the US election, actually interested in what they have to say

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I'm for it... let 'em monitor it.

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Adrift within the vortex of my imagination.

Asking and external agency to monitor elections while raising up a good scare story is a propaganda boost that might not have any basis in a factual threat.

Only the government can allow UN inspectors to have the authority to monitor elections and this incumbent government has most to gain from the scare. After all its apparently only those evil Republicans who apparently want to subvert the election, funny that.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2012/10/21 21:31:04


n'oublie jamais - It appears I now have to highlight this again.

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I have an issue with this on the grounds that U.N. isn't fit to monitor an empty paper bag much less a nation's electoral process.

But a neutral third party monitoring elections? Sure why not?

Not seeing anything in the article or any where else about the Feds actually GRANTING this request though, just the ACLU, NAACP, WTFITA, etc requesting it. So no need to start preparing to resist foreign invaders just yet.

I beg of you sarge let me lead the charge when the battle lines are drawn
Lemme at least leave a good hoof beat they'll remember loud and long


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Richmond, VA

Let them in, if we have nothing to hide, they won't find anything and be on their merry way.

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Gathering the Informations.

But a neutral third party monitoring elections? Sure why not?

Such as...?

The UN is about as "neutral third party" as you get.
   
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Curb stomping in the Eye of Terror!

Keep in mind that in most states, there are laws on the book that each campaign can send "Election Monitors" at the polling sites. The campaigns usually do this in hotly contested regions.

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 Kanluwen wrote:
But a neutral third party monitoring elections? Sure why not?

Such as...?

The UN is about as "neutral third party" as you get.


A neutral third party that happens to consist of several countries that hate the U.S.
   
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 Kanluwen wrote:
But a neutral third party monitoring elections? Sure why not?

Such as...?

The UN is about as "neutral third party" as you get.

Come again? We're talking about the United Nations right?

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Gathering the Informations.

Relapse wrote:
 Kanluwen wrote:
But a neutral third party monitoring elections? Sure why not?

Such as...?

The UN is about as "neutral third party" as you get.


A neutral third party that happens to consist of several countries that hate the U.S.

And several countries which like us as well.

In any case, it's far more neutral than some Tea Party advocated "third party" which is nothing but a smoke screen for "poll tax" styled crap to be brought back.
   
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I don't see a problem with this. I'm sure we have room to board them in our FEMA work camps.

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UN troops are invading America? I see the hand of our lizard overlords in this!

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Oh dear. It seems that America has finally failed democracy forever.

Well, good luck.

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USA

 Orlanth wrote:
Asking and external agency to monitor elections while raising up a good scare story is a propaganda boost that might not have any basis in a factual threat.


This. Special interest groups decry US government and demand their special interests be paid attention to. Real shocker there.



Give him this. Obama looks pretty could hip slugging a shot gun

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2012/10/22 13:05:40


   
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Curb stomping in the Eye of Terror!

What's the problem with this?

I guess what we don't know is what do you mean by "let UN monitor the election".

If it's... having an UN election observer going to same place as the other election observers... that's fine.

If it's... having the UN run/manage the election... then, I'd have a problem with that.

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United States

 Orlanth wrote:
Asking and external agency to monitor elections while raising up a good scare story is a propaganda boost that might not have any basis in a factual threat.


The Obama Administration didn't request OSCE monitors. They may (probably will) end up permitting them, but they didn't request them.

 Orlanth wrote:

Only the government can allow UN inspectors to have the authority to monitor elections and this incumbent government has most to gain from the scare.


Really? Have you not noticed how many American conservatives deeply hate the UN, and the OCSE is being called a "UN affiliate" by the conservative press to drum up a connection that involves no organizational dependency?

At this point the idea that Republicans specifically attempt to obstruct voting by certain segments of the US population is a fairly popular idea with the US left, so much so that I doubt a UN stamp of approval will matter at all (nor would a UN hand-wave). However, any intrusion by the UN, binding or not, is seen as a violation of US sovereignty and an example of the negative impact of Obama's conciliatory diplomatic strategy.

The former is old hat, the latter is very current, but the net effect is likely to be neutral in that anyone* who would take the results of a UN/OCSE report seriously already believes that Republicans oppress minorities, and anyone else simply won't care beyond the idea of "ZOMG, Obama endorses UN world government!"

To lend credence, here's a quote from a link Fraz posted in a duplicate thread:

Because of Obama’s overwhelming willingness to apologize to the world for the supposed “sins” of the United States, he has furthered the cause of the United Nations becoming a global government.


Its Breitbart, but Breitbart is popular with many conservatives.


*In the pool of "average voters", obviously any competent policy analyst will read and consider the report, or so I would hope.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2012/10/22 14:59:02


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Declare they are invaders and attack them with blun derbusses and unrifled muskets. If they continue to resist stick a feather in their caps and call them macaroni.



Automatically Appended Next Post:
 KalashnikovMarine wrote:


I have an issue with this on the grounds that U.N. isn't fit to monitor an empty paper bag much less a nation's electoral process.

But a neutral third party monitoring elections? Sure why not?

Not seeing anything in the article or any where else about the Feds actually GRANTING this request though, just the ACLU, NAACP, WTFITA, etc requesting it. So no need to start preparing to resist foreign invaders just yet.


Agreed. Plus its full of dictatorships not fit to shine my shoes.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2012/10/22 15:02:39


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Probably work

 Huffy wrote:

But they might not leave...then we'll have UN troops occupying our country...after that they'll take the guns, and finally they'll tattoo us with the mark of the beast.


Or worse, force us to adopt metric... eew!

I don't really trust the US to run an honest election, but I don't trust the UN to either. I'll take some of the tinfoil please.

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 Frazzled wrote:
stick a feather in their caps and call them macaroni.
Frazz I'm assuming your old enough to know what that means...

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United States

 KalashnikovMarine wrote:

I have an issue with this on the grounds that U.N. isn't fit to monitor an empty paper bag much less a nation's electoral process.


The OCSE isn't a part of the UN. It sits as an observer on the GA...and that's pretty much it.

 Frazzled wrote:

Agreed. Plus its full of dictatorships not fit to shine my shoes.


And the only countries that have ever vehemently objected to external observation are the same dictatorships.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2012/10/22 15:42:54


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 dogma wrote:


And the only countries that have ever vehemently objected to external observation are the same dictatorships.

Are we vehemently objecting? I think the UN has about as much right to question our electoral process as Castro does, but if they want to observe they are welcome. If they attempt to interfere or make their observation more of a presence then it's an issue.

 Avatar 720 wrote:
You see, to Auston, everyone is a Death Star; there's only one way you can take it and that's through a small gap at the back.

Come check out my Blood Angels,Crimson Fists, and coming soon Eldar
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/391013.page
I have conceded that the Eldar page I started in P&M is their legitimate home. Free Candy! Updated 10/19.
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/391553.page
Powder Burns wrote:what they need to make is a fullsize leatherman, like 14" long folded, with a bone saw, notches for bowstring, signaling flare, electrical hand crank generator, bolt cutters..
 
   
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United States

 AustonT wrote:

Are we vehemently objecting?


We aren't, Fraz is. I wasn't clear.

 AustonT wrote:

I think the UN has about as much right to question our electoral process as Castro does, but if they want to observe they are welcome. If they attempt to interfere or make their observation more of a presence then it's an issue.


I agree completely. Especially since any assessment which calls into question the claims of the NAACP et al will hopefully require them to moderate their rhetoric.

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-

Could somebody help me out here, because I'm really confused.

A few weeks ago, Chavez was elected, and international monitors said that the elections were some of the fairest and well organised they had ever seen anywhere. Ever.

But now, the US elections are being attacked due to a possibility of voter intimidation and/or dodgy practices.

For years I beleived that America was good, and Chavez was bad. Are you seriously suggesting that US media might be wrong!! Please, god, nooooo!!!!

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 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
Could somebody help me out here, because I'm really confused.

A few weeks ago, Chavez was elected, and international monitors said that the elections were some of the fairest and well organised they had ever seen anywhere. Ever.

But now, the US elections are being attacked due to a possibility of voter intimidation and/or dodgy practices.

For years I beleived that America was good, and Chavez was bad. Are you seriously suggesting that US media might be wrong!! Please, god, nooooo!!!!

Yup... media is wrong.

If it doesn't bleed... it don't lead...

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The Great State of Texas

 dogma wrote:
 AustonT wrote:

Are we vehemently objecting?


We aren't, Fraz is. I wasn't clear.

 AustonT wrote:

I think the UN has about as much right to question our electoral process as Castro does, but if they want to observe they are welcome. If they attempt to interfere or make their observation more of a presence then it's an issue.


I agree completely. Especially since any assessment which calls into question the claims of the NAACP et al will hopefully require them to moderate their rhetoric.


I am objecting. I don't recognize their right to exist.

-"Wait a minute.....who is that Frazz is talking to in the gallery? Hmmm something is going on here.....Oh.... it seems there is some dispute over video taping of some sort......Frazz is really upset now..........wait a minute......whats he go there.......is it? Can it be?....Frazz has just unleashed his hidden weiner dog from his mini bag, while quoting shakespeares "Let slip the dogs the war!!" GG
-"Don't mind Frazzled. He's just Dakka's crazy old dude locked in the attic. He's harmless. Mostly."
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 Frazzled wrote:
I don't recognize their right to exist.


Which is meaningless and ineffective. Way to go?

Amidst the mists and coldest frosts he thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts.
 
   
 
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