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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.”'"
Chuck "Walker" Norris himself will watch over this and will roundhouse-kick you until you learn to respect democracy!
yes, only other Texans are allowed to intimidate voters
When you cant win, ad hominem.
...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?
In terms of elections we now have less credibility than Venezuela.
It took real effort to break down confidence in the fairness of U.S. elections within 10 years.
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.
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 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...
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)
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.
"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.
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.
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.
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.