DemocRats want to "ensure free and fair
elections." in the United States
Bush Administrations Powell Bends over and invites foreigners in to monitor U.S. election.
13 DemocRats in the U.S. Congress asked United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to
send election monitors to the U.S. a move that outraged many Republicans and other lovers
of our national sovereignty. Jerrold Nadler, Edolphus Towns, Joseph Crowley Carolyn B.
Maloney, Corrine Brown Elijah E. Cummings and Barbara Lee lead the pack of hounds
When the same 13 DemocRats were turned down by Coffe Cup Annan, they took their slimy
request to Secretary of State Colin Powell. The State Department spread
its political legs to invite foreign election monitors to observe the U.S. elections in
November.
Assistant Secretary of State Paul V. Kelly affirmed the invitation in a letter to the 13
House members. They had requested U.N. monitors for this year's elections in an effort to
avoid the charges of voting irregularities.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the largest regional organization
in the world with 55 participating nations, will monitor the U.S. election on Nov. 2.
Members include Turkey,Tajikistan, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Albania. Belarus, Malta,
Russia, the frogs in France and the German bratworsts among others.
"OSCE members, including the United States, agreed in 1990 in Copenhagen to allow
fellow members to observe elections in one another's countries," Kelly wrote.
"Consistent with this commitment, the United States has already invited the OSCE's
Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) to observe the November 2,
2004, presidential elections."
The congressional initiative was spearheaded by Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas. She
asked Powell to make an official request that the U.N. provide observers for the Nov. 2
elections in the United States to "ensure free and fair elections."
Previously, the 13 Democratic congressmen, led by Johnson, sent a letter July 8 to the
U.N. general secretary requesting the presence of U.N. representatives in every county of
the country during the voting process and any vote recount afterwards.
The U.N. immediately responded that such a request could not be accepted unless it came
from the U.S. government. Otherwise, a spokesman said, it could be
considered"intervention in a country's sovereignty."
"As legislators, we should guarantee the American people that our country will not
experience another nightmare like the 2000 presidential elections," the members of
Congress said in their letter to Annan.
Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson - In her letter to Powell, Johnson expressed grave concerns
regarding electoral system reforms that were not undertaken after the 2000 election.
Recalling the contentious Florida vote count in 2000, the lawmakers urged the U.N. to
"ensure free and fair elections in America." "As lawmakers, we must assure
the people of America that our nation will not experience the nightmare of the 2000
presidential election," Johnson said in the letter. "This is the first step in
making sure that history does not repeat itself."
Meanwhile, Rep. Corrine Brown, a Florida DemocRat, announced that the Democratic
Institutions and Human Rights Office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe has confirmed that it will be present in the United States specifically, in Florida
on Election Day.
However, state election authorities in Florida have already announced that such observers
are not to be allowed access to the voting process and, in any case, they would have to
remain at a distance of more than 50 feet from the polls.
Besides Johnson, the congressional signers to the original U.N. letters included Julia
Carson of Indiana, Jerrold Nadler, Edolphus Towns, Joseph Crowley and Carolyn B. Maloney,
all of New York, Raul Grijalva of Arizona, Corrine Brown of Florida, Elijah E. Cummings of
Maryland, Danny K. Davis of Illinois, and Michael M. Honda and Barbara Lee of California. |
