International observers to monitor U.S. election for voter suppression

[KingOrfeo]

No, really.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), a United Nations partner on democratization and human rights projects, will deploy 44 observers from its human rights office around the country on Election Day to monitor an array of activities, including potential disputes at polling places. It's part of a broader observation mission that will send out an additional 80 to 90 members of parliament from nearly 30 countries.

44 observers? That ain't even one per state, guys. Do you realize how big this country is?

At any rate, the RW is pissed!

Liberal-leaning civil rights groups met with representatives from the OSCE this week to raise their fears about what they say are systematic efforts to suppress minority voters likely to vote for President Obama.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the NAACP and the ACLU, among other groups, warned this month in a letter to Daan Everts, a senior official with OSCE, of “a coordinated political effort to disenfranchise millions of Americans — particularly traditionally disenfranchised groups like minorities.”

The request for foreign monitoring of election sites drew a strong rebuke from Catherine Engelbrecht, founder and president of True the Vote, a conservative-leaning group seeking to crack down on election fraud.

“These activist groups sought assistance not from American sources, but from the United Nations,” she said in a statement to The Hill. “The United Nations has no jurisdiction over American elections.”

Neil Simon, director of communications for the OSCE’s parliamentary assembly, agreed the U.N. does not have jurisdiction over U.S. elections but noted all OSCE member counties, which include the United States, have committed since 1990 to hold free and democratic elections and to allow one another to observe their elections.

 

[mercury14]

They need to look at Ohio.

 

[richard_daily]

They need to look at Ohio.

And Florida.

 

[trysail]

After what Lyndon Johnson did in Jim Wells County and Bexar County and South Texas in 1948, nobody will ever again underestimate the lengths to which crooked pols will go to cheat or rig elections.

We know all about Chicago and Daley and the Kennedy thugs in 1960.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_B._Johnson#1948_contested_election

 

[richard_daily]

After what Lyndon Johnson did in Jim Wells County and Bexar County and South Texas in 1948, nobody will ever again underestimate the lengths to which crooked pols will go to cheat or rig elections.

We know all about Chicago and Daley and the Kennedy thugs in 1960.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_B._Johnson#1948_contested_election

It's hilarious that you're reaching back half a century to try to blame the other party on this one.

You are well aware that the vast majority of voter fraud is being committed by the republican party these days, I'm sure.

 

[LiFeNdEaTh]

They need to look at Ohio.

^ what he said

 

[mwmnpa]

They need to look in Philadelphia. This is The New Black Panthers "observing" a polling site:

 

[CandiCame]

I honestly had no idea the rest of the world gave a shit what we did.

 

[LiFeNdEaTh]

They need to look in Philadelphia. This is The New Black Panthers "observing" a polling site:

'somebody call yo'momma'

 

[richard_daily]

They need to look in Philadelphia. This is The New Black Panthers "observing" a polling site:

OMG, BLACK PEOPLE.... RUUUUuuunNNNNN!

How many people did they "prevent" from voting?

 

[mwmnpa]

Why don't you walk up and ask them?

 

[Sean]

Interesting piece on Salon yesterday:
http://www.salon.com/2012/10/21/if_ballots_were_bullets/

 

[IrezumiKiss]

Why don't you walk up and ask them?

I bet you cross over to the other side of the street with a damp crotch area every time you see an elderly black woman walking towards you.

 

[Liar]

Like I said in the other thread about it. It's a non-story.

“The OSCE has regularly been invited to observe elections in the United States, in line with OSCE commitments.”

The story is that the right wing decided to have a freakout about it this time. Must be hitting close to home or something.

 

[richard_daily]

Why don't you walk up and ask them?

I don't think they're doing anything "scary", so I'm not worried about it.

You're the one who brought it up, so why don't you explain it to the rest of the class?

Also, I doubt they're still standing there.

 

[richard_daily]

Interesting piece on Salon yesterday:
http://www.salon.com/2012/10/21/if_ballots_were_bullets/

excellent read.

 

[doctor_insanus]

It would be nice if they could keep an eye on these fucking assholes.

 

[KingOrfeo]

After what Lyndon Johnson did in Jim Wells County and Bexar County and South Texas in 1948, nobody will ever again underestimate the lengths to which crooked pols will go to cheat or rig elections.

We know all about Chicago and Daley and the Kennedy thugs in 1960.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_B._Johnson#1948_contested_election

What's going on this year, however, is a different kind of fraud, one that involves keeping legitimate votes out of the box rather than putting fake votes in.

 

[KingOrfeo]

Interesting piece on Salon yesterday:
http://www.salon.com/2012/10/21/if_ballots_were_bullets/

Interesting indeed:

Since 2000, there have been only about 10 cases in the United States of people impersonating someone else at the polls, the only type of fraud that voter ID laws could conceivably prevent, according to a study by News21. This small number is not surprising. Impacting an election through voter impersonation would require a scheme of comically byzantine proportions, including “an army of individual impersonators,” notes Barbara Arnwine, president of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. That’s why it’s more likely, according to the Brennan Center, for a person to be struck by lightning than to pretend to be someone else at the polls.

Nevertheless, Republican state officials are responding to fewer than a dozen errant voters by disenfranchising more than three million eligible ones; for every one person charged with voter impersonation in the past 12 years, 300,000 legal voters could be blocked from the ballot box.

Imagine if such an obnoxiously lopsided ratio were applied to guns – we would be deafened by the outcries from Second Amendment advocates, who are firm in their belief that crime prevention is not a valid reason to curtail any law-abiding citizen’s ability to obtain a gun. Instead, they insist, we should simply prosecute gun crimes after they are actually committed.

 

[VaticanAssassin]

I am VATASS and I approve of this thread.....

It smells like.....fear, hypocrisy, and ignorance all rolled in to one.

 

[KingOrfeo]

I am VATASS and I approve of this thread.....

It smells like.....fear, hypocrisy, and ignorance all rolled in to one.

Ambiguous as to whose.

 

[richard_daily]

Ambiguous as to whose.

Never trust a guy who calls himself "vatass".

 

[trysail]

After what Lyndon Johnson did in Jim Wells County and Bexar County and South Texas in 1948, nobody will ever again underestimate the lengths to which crooked pols will go to cheat or rig elections.

We know all about Chicago and Daley and the Kennedy thugs in 1960.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_B._Johnson#1948_contested_election

What's going on this year, however, is a different kind of fraud, one that involves keeping legitimate votes out of the box rather than putting fake votes in.

Fool me once, shame on you.

Fool me twice, shame on me.

 

[Wrong Element]

The whole point of the current vote suppression campaign is that it all happens out of sight, prior to Election Day.

The entire Republican project for the last several years, from filibustering everything in sight to Citizens United to vote suppression, has been to democracy-proof their control of American government. Putting an actual multi-millionaire at the head of the executive branch would basically complete our devolution into a banana republic.

 

[richard_daily]

Fool me once, shame on you.

Fool me twice, shame on me.

In that case, how do you feel about the election fraud known as the state of Florida?

"c-c-c can't get fooled again".