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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.”'"
...of election officials to fix the vote.
Operation Guillotine is in effect.
I love how Americans go around the world telling other countries how to do "fair" elections, when they can't even following their own laws and do fair elections themselves.
Tell me again who should have won the last election?
Yet there are americans 'observing' elections in the middle-east and africa, but there it is normal because those regimes are corrupt. The fact that Europe is willing to send observers to the USA elections is maybe a sign that they think there is no real democracy there.
Except that there are serious and legitimate questions about whether or not US elections are being carried out fairly and properly. So here we are telling elections observers that they are not allowed to actually observe the voting process. You don't see a problem here?
Palm trees and 8
How do we know that the legislature was democratically elected if there's nobody outside that legislative body watching for election fraud?
What are you talking about? Elections observers are sent in when there is a concern that voters might be disenfranchised, that elections might be fraudulent, that opposition parties might be excluded, and so forth. All of the above applies to the US.
Nobody talks about how dangerous it is for elections observers to be sent to Afghanistan.
Palm trees and 8
It's interesting that this keeps being brought up. It keeps being brought up because it's the only counter example the far right has.
Putting forth all the electoral manipulations since 2000, in contrast, would take up pages.
In Indiana it was found out over the past couple of days there is a county that purged *20%* of it's voter rolls. According to the Republicans involved, it was an accident. Is the same thing going on across the country all accidents? When does that excuse become non-credible.
Moral obligation to fairness. A concept we're forgetting by the day.
I want you to just substitute the word "Texas" for the word "Syria" in the article summary and tell me how it sounds. Here, I'll do it.
Huh, that's funny: if you change the location there, it sounds almost like a declaration of intent to rig the election of some third-world fake democracy! But no, it's Texas so everything must be fine.
The world looks to America to set a good example, and America leads by example.
Sadly no, that ship sailed quite some time ago. In fact it never really docked in the first place. That the world looks up to America is a happy little fantasy americans entertain to keep themselves feeling all warm and fuzzy while they fuck everyone else over.
The reason Texas has been targeted specifically is because of its history of voter abuse.
I know Texas likes to toot it's own horn about how they're all big and tough and don't need no nobody, but really they're really ruining the US's image by doing this and being defiant pricks for no reason. Everyone likes to point out how terrible the federal government is, but that's turning a blind eye to how much worse state governments are.
Okay well maybe if it were a local election, or state only election, they could get away with this. But we're talking about a presidential elections, the future of the national government rests on this. So no, Texas can't just isolate themselves: they're beholden to the federal government in this matter. And it's definitely of concern to the UN who the next president of the entire US will be, so it isn't like this is some trivial matter.
Yet there are americans 'observing' elections in the middle-east and africa, but there it is normal because those regimes are corrupt. The fact that Europe is willing to send observers to the USA elections is maybe a sign that they think there is no real democracy there.
Or more simply, that the OSCE treaty, which was signed by the US, obliges its members to invite observers...
Yes, his state's laws mean jack and shit in comparison to agreement made by the US with the OCSE. It's this thing called the "Supremacy Clause". Abbott is waving his dick around to grandstand and nothing more.
My favorite story about the 2000 presidential election: Fidel Castro offered to send Cuban election observers to ensure the FL elections were free and fair. That guy sure has a sense of humor.
I am officially gone from
Listen, even if (and I'm not saying it is the case that) it is technically legal for Texas to refuse observers access to the voting stations, it would be an utterly dickish anti-democratic and third world country thing to do.
There is no valid fucking reason to deny international observers access and everybody who claims otherwise knows there isn't. Hell, if any other country were to do something similar, you'd say they were sneaky corrupt bastards. And that would hold for countries that hadn't even agreed to be transparent when it comes to their democratic process in the first place. American exceptionalism indeed.
These Republicans are projecting and showing what's in their heart. They are projecting onto others an honest image of themselves that they might not otherwise expose.
The attitude of ANY American election official or party official should be: "Bring it on. Let us show you how it's done."
Transparency is an integral part of democracy.
This kind of cowardice is really embarrassing.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.