House Democrats Urge UN Supervision of Presidential Election

["Paul Tiger" <paul.tiger@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.cnsnews.com/Nation/Archive/200408/NAT20040802b.html

House Democrats Urge UN Supervision of Presidential Election
By Roch Hammond
CNSNews.com Correspondent
August 02, 2004

(CNSNews.com) - At least 13 members of the U.S. House of Representatives are
calling for the United Nations to supervise this year's American
presidential election, four years after one of the closest races in history.

Rep. Corrine Brown's home state is Florida, site of the historic ballot
recount in 2000 that eventually provided Republican George W. Bush with the
margin of victory over Democrat Al Gore. Brown is perhaps the most outspoken
advocate for United Nations supervision of the 2004 election. On July 16 as
members of the House discussed the idea, she charged that President Bush
"stole" the election in 2000 and called Bush's victory a "United States coup
d'etat."

"We need to make sure that it doesn't happen again," Brown said in taunting
Bush and the Republican Party. "Over and over again, after the election,
when you stole the election, you came back here and said 'get over it.' No,
we're not going to 'get over it' and we want verification from the world."

She was subsequently censured by the U.S. House and her remarks were
stricken from the congressional record.

But Brown is one of at least a dozen members of Congress who want U.N.
supervision of the elections, not only in Florida but across America. It's a
responsibility that has traditionally been left up to state governments.

Reps. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas, Carolyn Maloney of New York, Barbara
Lee of California, Jerrold Nadler of New York, Joseph Crowley of New York,
Raul Grijalva of Arizona, Mike Honda of California, Ed Towns of New York,
Elijah Cummings of Maryland, William Clay of Missouri and Julia Carson of
Indiana made the formal request in a June 30 letter to U.N. Secretary
General Kofi Annan. Later, Brown lent her support to the effort.

"We firmly believe in the importance of international human rights law and
its applicability and relevance to the U.S. as a member of the international
community," the letter to Annan stated. "Given the deeply troubling events
of the 2000 election and the growing concerns about the lack of necessary
reforms and potential for abuse in the 2004 election, we believe that the
engagement of international election monitors has the potential to speed the
necessary reform as well as reduce the likelihood of questionable practices
and voter disenfranchisement on Election Day."

John B. Townsend, communications director for Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson
(D-TX), said U.N. involvement is necessary to avoid a repeat of the 2000
election.

Townsend said it was a "dirty little secret" that electoral irregularities
had occurred in the United States before 2000, but said that the closeness
of the race four years ago made the issue more pressing.

... [E]ven before the 2000 election there were concerns about the outcome of
elections and whether people were being deliberately disenfranchised,"
Townsend stated.

Johnson believes there were cases in which the ballots of would-be voters
were deliberately discarded, but that in other cases the discarded votes
were due to "flaws" in the system since some minority communities were using
older voting machines.

Townsend said the U.S. "routinely" asks the United Nations to supervise
elections in other nations, so the government should now ask for the
monitoring to be done in America. "There are so many questions both
nationally and internationally about the outcome of [the 2000 election]," he
said.

Jenny Nash, press secretary with the Florida Department of State, said there
would be no repeat of 2000.

Nash said news reports claiming that new electronic voter machines were
malfunctioning, were "absolutely incorrect." She called those reports
"unprofessional" and "inexcusable," and said they were designed to "erode"
voter confidence.

Hundreds of elections have been held since the use of the new technology,
Nash said, and there has "not been one vote lost." She said news agencies
have "incorrectly" stated that "under votes," a situation in which a
particular issue, contest or even the entire ballot, is ignored, constitute
"lost votes." There are many reasons why votes are not cast, such as
"protest votes" or a lack of information on a candidate or issue, according
to Nash.

The new voting machines eliminate the need for "determining voter intent," a
task that burdened officials in previous election, Nash said. The machines
also prevent "over votes," in which the person votes more than once on an
issue or candidate.

Nash maintained that there is no possibility for malfeasance because there
is no network of electronic machines, the voting units are individualized
and there are paper "audit trails" to document the votes of citizens.

She stated that Florida's certification standards are "the most rigorous" in
the nation, and "security is a huge part of that process" to ensure that the
votes are accurate and secure.

Nash also said she is opposed to the idea of U.N. supervision of the
November election.

Jeff Deist, press secretary for Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) asserted that the
United Nations does not have the legal or moral authority to supervise
American elections.

"The U.N. is rife with corruption and political intrigue; the U.N. is the
last organization on earth that ought to be judging [America's] elections,"
Deist said.

He added that the notion that U.N. supervision would make American elections
fairer and more accurate wa "preposterous."

Officials from the United Nations declined to comment for this article since
the U.S. government has not asked the international organization to
supervise its presidential election.

The Congressional Black Caucus, ardent supporters of the idea because of
alleged widespread African-American "disenfranchisement," could not be
reached for comment.

Officials from the congressional offices of Corrine Brown, Joseph Crowley,
Julia Carson and others favoring U.N. supervision did not return phone calls
requesting comment.