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When the U.S. State Department invited a team of international election observers to watch this year's American presidential election, it invited "scandal, fraud and corruption to the American electoral process," a conservative watchdog group has charged.
The American Policy Center (APC) is warning of a "catastrophe," in part because Florida Democratic Congressman Alcee Hastings, labeled a "disgraced federal judge" by the APC, will play a prominent role in the election observing. Hastings was elected July 9 as president of the division at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) that will be charged with the task.
DeWeese sees the international monitoring of the U.S. elections as a threat to democracy.
"There is a political agenda at work here. The OSCE is not an unbiased team of observers. If the vote in Florida or many other states is as close as predicted, you can bet that Alcee Hastings and his army of foreign monitors will do everything in their power to affect the outcome to their liking," DeWeese said.
The APC critique of the State Department's invitation follows a similarly scathing attack by U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas). The former Libertarian Party presidential candidate warned on Aug. 16 that inviting international observers to watch the American election violated the principle of federalism.