Slashdot Mirror
Texas Attorney General Warns International Election Observers
First time accepted submitter mescobal writes "Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott warned international election observers not to come closer than 100 feet from a polling place; otherwise, they could be subject to criminal prosecution. The warning was addressed to a group of international observers who intend to monitor polls. The OSCE, an UN affiliated organization of observers, was concerned about voter ID issues among other things. From the article: '“The Texas Election Code governs anyone who participates in Texas elections — including representatives of the OSCE,” Abbott wrote. “The OSCE’s representatives are not authorized by Texas law to enter a polling place. It may be a criminal offense for OSCE’s representatives to maintain a presence within 100 feet of a polling place’s entrance. Failure to comply with these requirements could subject the OSCE’s representatives to criminal prosecution for violating state law.”'"
Janez LenarÄiÄ, the Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), stated that "The United States, like all countries in the OSCE, has an obligation to invite ODIHR observers to observe its elections.â (http://www.osce.org/odihr/elections/96639).
Where does this obligation come from?
Where does this obligation come from?
As a signing member of OSCE, the US must comply to the treaty's terms. This is irrespective of what Texas' AG quacks, since the legalese in international treaties supersedes national laws where applicable -- or at least that's how it's supposed to work anyway.
The US federal government signed and ratified the OSCE Copenhagen charter, and the US Constitution states that federal law and international treaties supersede state law (a provision that Texas has historically had problems with).
Repost because of idiotic troll mod:
Technically, the state law is in disagreement with international agreements:
"Access of election observers is regulated by state law. This frequently does not provide for international observers as required by paragraph 8 of the 1990 OSCE Copenhagen Document. Domestic observation is expected to be widespread." ( http://www.osce.org/odihr/elections/96574 - page 2)
The document: http://www.osce.org/odihr/elections/14304 [osce.org]
See page 1 for the US being part of it and page 3 and further for what was agreed upon.
"(8) The participating States consider that the presence of observers, both foreign and domestic, can enhance the electoral process for States in which elections are taking place. They therefore invite observers from any other CSCE participating States and any appropriate private institutions and organizations who may wish to do so to observe the course of their national election proceedings, to the extent permitted by law. They will also endeavour to facilitate similar access for election proceedings held below the national level. Such observers will undertake not to interfere in the electoral proceedings." (page 7)
LOL. The US is a participant and founder member of the OCSE. When they joined they agreed to certain obligations such as allowing observers to come in. There is no "subversion of democracy" here anymore than the US observers subvert democracy during the elections they monitor. Get your fucking head out of your ass.
The Gore election was fixed, but it was done way before the vote was taken. There were massive voter purges in Florida done by the Jeb Bush administration. The number of Democratic voters taken out was several times Bush's margin of victory.
This is well documented (with REAL FACTS!) but it isn't talked about.
It's not "Europe" that is sending the observers. It's the OSCE, an organization that the US ARE A MEMBER OF!
And all members agreed to send observers to each others elections on a regular base.
bickerdyke
Texas State Election Code, Title 3 "Election Officers and Observers", Chapter 33 "Watchers", Subchapter B "Eligibility", Section 33.031: "GENERAL ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS"
(a) To be eligible to serve as a watcher, a person must be a qualified voter:
(1) of the county in which the person is to serve, in an election ordered by the governor or a county authority or in a primary election;
(2) of the part of the county in which the election is held, in an election ordered by the governor or a county authority that does not cover the entire county of the person's residence; and
(3) of the political subdivision, in an election ordered by an authority of a political subdivision other than a county.
(b) The Alcoholic Beverage Code supersedes this section to the extent of any conflict.
Acts 1985, 69th Leg., ch. 211, Sec. 1, eff. Jan. 1, 1986."
So, technically, unless the international observers are local residents, they would be in violation of the law. Legitimately registered voters may observe their LOCAL
elections, either by County or possibly State-wide depending on which election it is.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
"By treaty, the CSCE can observe the election to the extent permitted by law. By law, observers cannot maintain a presence within 100 feet of a polling place."
I don't know if you're being obnoxious for the sake of it or not, but that's not the law it refers to. It refers to the treaty law itself which defines what the observers can and can't do, not a lower level law specified by a bunch of little upstarts that think they have more power than they do.
Grandstanding akin to calling a press conference to state the sky is blue.
FTA: “I have specifically informed the Texas team that Chapter 61 of the Texas Election Code would not allow them into actual polling places, and they understood this limitation,” per the election authority.
So the observers were told of the limitation, accepted it, and understood it, but the AG in an effort to bolster his own image couldn't resist the urge to make a scene.
Texas as usual.
In the case of the Black Panthers in 2008, they were just standing outside the precincts with billy clubs, trying to scare off anybody who wasn't black. It was caught on video. It's hard to think of a more blatant case of voter intimidation in recent memory than that one.
And then AG Eric Holder decided not to prosecute what would have been a slam dunk case. He should be ousted from office for that decision alone.
More than that, they agreed to *invite* observers to their elections.
Also FatPhil on SoylentNews, id 863
Wow, and yet Gore STILL got more votes than Bush in Florida, only to have them not counted by a conspiracy between corrupt election officials and corrupt Supreme Court justices.
My thanks go to the Washington Post and other fine newspapers for establishing this fact, so that nobody in the future will ever consider Bush 's first term to be legitimate:
1. Bush did prosecute.
2. BP bargained and a conviction was all set.
3. Eric Holder and Obama dropped all the charges.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
The Supremacy Clause establishes that treaties shall override state's laws, but does not make any such provision for agreements between international bodies, of which this case is an example. As such, the state's laws do indeed have authority in this matter.
But the sheriff's feet may be of a different length from the observer's. Who is right, then?
Measuring in dicks may work. The sheriff would mark any arbitrary distance and the observer would be too ashamed of claiming it to be less than the sheriff said it was.
You got that backwards. Sheriff says "that's 150 dicks length." Observer says "it's only 75 according to mine."