U.S. might flunk Global Voting test!!

O.K., so maybe flunking isn't a good word and it wasn't exactly a global voting test, but the Global monitors found many faults with the U.S. election. They had difficulty observing the polls, found it confusing that election laws varied State to State and county by county and we didn't have enough fail safes in place.

MIAMI The global implications of the U.S. election are undeniable, but international monitors at a polling station in southern Florida said Tuesday that voting procedures being used in the extremely close contest fell short in many ways from the best global practices.

The observers said they had less access to polls than in Kazakhstan, that the electronic voting had fewer fail-safes than in Venezuela, that the ballots were not so simple as in the Republic of Georgia and that no other country had such a complex national election system.

"To be honest, monitoring elections in Serbia a few months ago was much simpler," said Konrad Olszewski, an election observer stationed in Miami by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

"They have one national election law and use the paper ballots I really prefer over any other system," Olszewski said.

Full story: iht.com.../articles/2004/11/02/news/observe.html

What do you think about the fact that our elections were monitored and that we probably won't get a very good final review?

More importantly, after 2000 wouldn't you think that the U.S. would have done a better job with this election? Shouldn't we have seen and fixed these things that the global monitors are pointing out?

Jemison

KEEP THE REST OF THE WORLD THE # OUT OF OUR ELECTIONS

What AMM said...

Screw them.

Watching the circus that is the US elections, I must say I've been rather amused by the level of 'organisation'. I thank the US for providing such light relief and reminding me why I should be grateful with what I have already.

As to American Mad Man, it's okay to not want other countries and people interfering in your elections, we didn't appreciate that either during our's, but I think you've over CAPITILIZED a bit! And anger management may be on the cards for you too...

I agree and was upset when I initially heard that they would be monitoring our elections but there is a lot we could have done before this election that we didn't do and instead we just gave the global monitors a bunch of ammunition!

Jemison

Originally posted by Jemison
They [the international observers] had difficulty observing the polls, found it confusing that election laws varied State to State and county by county and we didn't have enough fail safes in place.

Election laws vary from State to State because a U.S. national election isn't really a single election; it's actually 51 individual elections. These European observers are used to centralized control, which is why they find the fact that the 50 States are autonomous at the same time as the U.S. government confusing.

Also, why is it a surprise that they had difficulty observing the polls directly? Allowing people not legally bound to protect them near the polls invites fraud, maybe even theft. At least, if someone who took an oath to protect the polls violates that oath, they can be sued, or even sent to jail if their violation was criminal in nature. What could we do to European observers 'watching' the polls who are found to have tampered with them -- send them home? Oooh, that'll scare them...

The election rules vary state by state because we are a constitutionalized republic....

not a socialize, cookie-cutter country.

I agree with the first reponder...stay the F*** out of our business.

I will say for the most part my voting place in Eastern Alabama got an A, would have been an A+ but for some issues with confusion about names not on role.
The system in use is the connect the dot to arrow on paper card stock fed into an optical reader with the locked box holding the ballets for recount. Ink pens were archival. The crowd was great, the polling people were excellent and orderly. As of this writing, I'm still waiting for my precinct results to determine if it passed the count test.
I'm appalled at some of the stories Ive heard, "NONE HAVE BEEN PROVEN NOR HAVE I SEEN THE OFFICIAL DOCUMENTATION YET!"
*Dead people voting,.
*Live people with name listed as deceased.
*Flyers being dropped on ethnic areas in attempt to derail voting by telling people the whole family will be turned away if anyone in the family has a criminal convition or outstanding traffic tickets.
*People being hounded at polling places as to whether they have the right to vote.
*Computers not working causeing delays, )you can vote paper has been added, and if you are in line at close you still get to vote).
*People being told to vote the day after the election. ( Some where jokes, but damaged may have been done).
*If you attempt to vote and your information does not match you will be turned away, (Provisional ballets are available in these cases).
*Armed officers showing up at poor elderly residences asking questions about voter registration with sidearms and/or ankle holsters exposed for imtimidation.
*Multiple registrations in different precincts and snowbirding in two states.

Lets hope that these are all just political BS!
-- Edited Spelling/Typos --

[edit on 2-11-2004 by AlabamaCajun]

Jemison for once i agree with your post... your election system needs overhauled and some new rules need put in place, and some older ones need replaced...

AMM, maybe if the US stopped interfering in other countries affairs, other countries wouldnt be so interested in yours... hmmm didnt think of that now did we... Could your defensiveness be born from denial?

Also if your election system is as flawed as the last two elections seem to be indicating... shouldnt you fix your own democracy before forcing democracy upon others (forced democracy... hmmm does that sound right to you?)

Originally posted by Valhall
The election rules vary state by state because we are a constitutionalized republic....

not a socialize, cookie-cutter country.

I agree with the first reponder...stay the F*** out of our business.

Remember, they are here to "Monitor", this gives no one control over our election process.
Copping an attitude at the world is a slap in the face of some of our closest allies and could result in loss of UN status. Think that would not hurt, go back and look at our global involvement and both support and dependance on the UN with war on terror, international trade etc. *Note* I'm not flaming the quoted person, but pointing out the facts that our elections have been held to a high regard by the most of the world and we must show them the respect when we hit a snag. I do believe that we as a people will handle the problems in a civil and orderly manner. It's unfortunate, but we can expect that some person(s) will take their own uncivil actions and will be delt with.

How dare anyone say we are doing something wrong!

Originally posted by curme
How dare anyone say we are doing something wrong!

I agree with you, US does not do any wrong in the world or to the rest of the world.

We are perfect.

Originally posted by American Mad Man
KEEP THE REST OF THE WORLD THE # OUT OF OUR ELECTIONS

Well we should stay out of other countries elections too, not support certain dictators etc., place puppet governments in power like we did in Iraq and Afghanistan. But I forget, it's okay if we do it to someone else, but no cool when it's done to us. I'm sorry but some of my fellow "Americans" make me sick. It's obvious to see the seeds of the same kind of though that was openly showed up till the 1960's. Sad, sad..

[edit on 11/2/2004 by truseeker]

I have no problem with foreign visitors watching the elections.. all they are doing is watching anyway.. not influencing. I feel as if someone wants to be a spectator they have every right too.. hell, I will bring them a chair so they can be a bit more comfortable.

[edit on 2-11-2004 by RedOctober90]

Have to agree here - The US should have grounds to complain that the rest of the world wish to monitor their elections, for 2 reasons. Firstly the outcome will have a huge impact on the rest of the world and secondly the US thinks it has a right to impose its style of democracy on anyone it wants to.

It seems to me that the US is struggling to impose democracy on its self.

who CARES where the monitors come from? why are they there? they are gmen journalists. what's wrong with that? it's okay to foist america's will on every 'back water banana republic', and 'third world cesspool', but it's NOT okay for all the worldwide victims of corporate american imperialism to be concerned that your democracy is not rigged? you'd think, that as americans, who love the freedom of the press, that you would WANT to have a TRUSTED third party observe, especially after the extreeeemely iffy descision in 2000(i'm just being polite, for all the good republicans out there when i say 'iffy').
america is seriously divided right now. the 'divide and conquer' boys are laughing their collective arse off. you have created TWO countries inside a country. it should now be called "the dis-united states of america'.

valhall, and other mad americans, ....do you trust voting machines? there is NO record in REALITY of the ballots. therefore, the 'ballots' don't actually exist. they are virtual. paper worked great for 200 years, why go backwards into an unaccountable system?

Good, I kind of hope we fail. I also hope that global views of America declines and that our economy crashes.

I don't want the distruction of America, but only through rebirth can we survive.

Fail away USA!

i like how other nations think they know best....and we're the arrogant ones?

Originally posted by namehere
i like how other nations think they know best....and we're the arrogant ones?

Yes, we are.

I can understand now world resistance against America.. it wants to impose democracy on foreign peoples when it can barely impose democracy on itself.

No the world doesen't think "they know best" They are just looking out for there safety and security... who knows what foreign nation is next on the invade list.

[edit on 2-11-2004 by RedOctober90]