What happened to the International Monitors?? [View All]

I apologize if this has already been addressed to death. It seems we might keep asking these people what they observed.

From The Nation's pre-election "Groundwar" blogs--(The Nation was all over election fraud until Election Day, then they seem to have gone into denial and cognitive dissonance. The magazine is quickly losing relevance by avoiding the most crucial issue before us.)

This is from a report on International Monitors
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/groundwar?pid=1969

snip-
On November 2, one hundred specialists from the Vienna-based Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and twenty experts invited by the San Francisco-based non-profit Global Exchange will observe and monitor elections in crucial swing states across the country.

The idea of international monitors made headlines last July when thirteen Congressional Democrats, concerned about a repeat of the fiasco in Florida, sent a letter to Kofi Annan asking the UN to send representatives. "We believe that the engagement of international election monitors can be a catalyst to expedite the necessary reform, as well as reduce the likelihood of questionable practices and voter disenfranchisement on Election Day," the letter stated. House Republicans shot back with concerns about the infringement of US sovereignty and passed an amendment to a foreign aid bill banning US tax dollars from supporting any UN mission to monitor votes. In a compromise, the State Department decided to invite the less-controversial multinational OSCE to see if US elections measure up to international standards.

(The letter:
http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/tx30_johnson/HouseMembersUnitedNationsElectionMonitor.html)

snip-
The Global Exchange mission hit a roadblock just recently when election supervisors in Ohio's Cuyahoga (Cleveland) and Franklin (Columbus) County and Florida's Miami-Dade and Broward (Ft. Lauderdale) County--crucial districts marked by irregularities in 2000 and growing concerns in 2004--said that they will prevent international monitors from observing polling sites there. Most states, including Ohio and Florida, have laws prohibiting independent, non- partisan observers. The State Department-invited OSCE, however, hasn't experienced similar barriers at their sites.

Whatever the outcome, the presence of international vote monitors in the US on a larger scale than ever before will hopefully draw needed attention to the defects in the mechanics of American democracy. Come tomorrow, it may not be a pretty picture. As Horacio Boneo says, "There's some spots on the shining city on the hill."


OSCE/ODHIR 2004 Election Mission to the US site:
http://www.osce.org/odihr/elections/field_activities/?election=2004us

What was the first report? It is not on their website.
"After election day, the Election Observation Mission will issue a statement of preliminary findings and conclusions. A comprehensive final report will be released about a month after the completion of the election process."

Urdur Gunnarsdottir
Spokesperson, Press and Public Information Adviser
E-mail: Urdur.Gunnarsdottir@osce.org

Here is their 2002 US Election Report (to see if they meant business then--which is hard to believe--given they were "invited by the US government):
http://www.osce.org/documents/odihr/2003/01/1465_en.pdf

This is the site of the San Francisco group. Their website has also not been updated since the election, which seems odd...
http://www.fairelection.us/