Sunday, August 08, 2004
Some Great News
International team to monitor presidential election...and some not so great news:
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A team of international observers will monitor the presidential election in November, according to the U.S. State Department.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe was invited to monitor the election by the State Department. The observers will come from the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.
It will be the first time such a team has been present for a U.S. presidential election.
In November 2002, OSCE sent 10 observers on a weeklong mission to monitor the U.S. midterm elections.Judging from the obvious fraud in '02, I don't get the sense the OSCE's observation plan worked out too well last time around. Let's hope this time they have 1,000 observers, including a contingent of computer experts. (Will they be posted at polling places wearing orange vests--sort of like those dudes with assault rifles loitering in airports and subway stations, assuaging our fears of being attacked by terrorists, except in this case to boost our confidence that our votes are being counted?)
Oh, and check out the unscientific CNN "quick vote." I would have assumed people would be overwhelmingly against the idea of international observers, if for no other reason than a kind of knee-jerk sentiment against furriners meddling in our great system. But look:
Should international observers be brought in to monitor the U.S. presidential election?Even though this is the "Clinton News Network" (ha! HA!), I think this says something about the seriousness of the concern out there.
Yes 53%
No 47%
posted by Blicero : 8/08/2004 09:44:00 PM
