Eight civil rights groups ask UN partner to monitor elections (in the U.S.!)

[Cylnar]

Daily Kos
Sunday, October 21, 2012
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/10/21/1147938/-Eight-civil-rights-groups-ask-UN-partner-to-monitor-elections?detail=hide

This is what it's come to, folks.  A coalition of eight civil rights groups is worried enough about possible voter suppression that it has asked the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, an IGO affiliated with the UN, to monitor our elections.

   Liberal-leaning civil rights groups met with representatives from the OSCE this week to raise their fears about what they say are systematic efforts to suppress minority voters likely to vote for President Obama.

   The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the NAACP and the ACLU, among other groups, warned this month in a letter to Daan Everts, a senior official with OSCE, of "a coordinated political effort to disenfranchise millions of Americans — particularly traditionally disenfranchised groups like minorities."

Where possible, OSCE teams will be on the ground on Election Day--and they won't just be watching the actual voting.

   "They [will] observe the overall election process, not just the ballot casting," said Giovanna Maiola, spokeswoman for OSCE. "They are focusing on a number of areas on the state level, including the legal system, election administration, the campaign, the campaign financing [and] new voting technologies used in the different states."

Some states explicitly allow for international observers.  In other cases, the OSCE has used its contacts at the local level to get permission to watch the proceedings.

Not surprisingly, one of the worst offenders among the wingnut groups trolling for voter fraud is not at all happy.

   The request for foreign monitoring of election sites drew a strong rebuke from Catherine Engelbrecht, founder and president of True the Vote, a conservative-leaning group seeking to crack down on election fraud.

   "These activist groups sought assistance not from American sources, but from the United Nations," she said in a statement to The Hill. "The United Nations has no jurisdiction over American elections."

Engelbrecht is one to talk.  Her organization has gotten it wrong--bad wrong--when challenging voters in several states.   In fact, True the Vote has gotten it wrong so often that both Democratic and Republican election officials have criticized it.  And Congressman Elijah Cummings has launched an investigation, suspecting that True the Vote may be a criminal organization. In other words, True the Vote is part of the reason why the OSCE had to be called in to start with.

International voting observers are typically used in places like Egypt, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Africa, and other places where there is a significant likelihood of voter intimidation and fraud. Republican groups have now basically added the United States to the list of such unstable regions, through their disgusting attempts to steal this election for Mitt Romney. They are the ones perpetrating the fraud - don't let yourself be fooled by their propaganda.

[Tessera]

I don't blame them for being concerned. Let me give you an example of why there is serious cause for concern...


In the state of Ohio, the people of Ohio will be voting by using (primarily) electronic voting machines.

Those electronic voting machines in Ohio are manufactured and monitored by a company named Hart InterCivic.

Hart InterCivic is a company which is partially owned by a larger private equity firm, known as HIG Capital.

Four of the HIG executives (Tony Tamer, John Bolduc, Douglas Berman and Brian D. Schwartz) have been identified as being major contributors to Mitt Romney's campaign... to the tune of nearly 340,000 dollars during just this past year alone. More than a quarter of a million dollars. A lot more.

Three of the executives at HIG Capital... Tony Tamer, John Bolduc and Douglas Berman... are former employees of Bain Capital, a scandalous company owned by Mitt Romney.

Among the investors in HIG Capital is a company named Solamere -- a private equity firm run by Tagg Romney, who is Mitt Romney's son.


Get the picture..? Ohio is the state which will most likely decide this election... just as Florida (and its infamous "hanging chads" fiasco) decided the election back in 2000. So it should come as no surprise that the electronic voting machines in Ohio are, in a rather round-about way, controlled by Mitt Romney and his corporate supporters.

The Republicans can no longer win a national election in this country. Not honestly, I mean. They don't have the numbers that they need in order to win honestly... not even if each and every single Republican were to get out and vote. So what they have been doing instead is resorting to clandestine criminal behavior, in order to steal important elections from their rightful winners. Rigged voting machines, voter fraud schemes, disenfranchising voters (particularly minority and low-income voters), issuing falsified information to voters... you name it, and they're guilty of doing it.

Americans need to sit up and pay attention... otherwise, you could end up having your vote (or your right to vote) stolen from you. This is not some lame conspiracy theory... it is HAPPENING right now -- right here in the USA. Wake up, America.