International Election Monitors Take on Florida

[Say_What]

<clips>

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Reuters) - An international group that usually monitors elections in developing democracies said Monday it would take up posts at Florida precincts in November in hopes of averting another debacle when voters pick the next U.S. president.

Four years after Florida became the object of international ridicule, officials for the Catholic group Pax Christi USA will place monitors from 30 countries at polls in four Florida counties that were at the center of the 2000 U.S. presidential election dispute.

The Washington-based group will ask its international organization to send monitors to Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Duval counties, where voting irregularities kept the outcome of the 2000 presidential race in doubt for more than month.

The national coordinator for Pax Christi USA, Dave Robinson, said Florida's 2000 election woes were symbolic of errors across the United States that disenfranchised hundreds of thousands of voters.


<http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=584&e=1&u=/nm/20040308/pl_nm/campaign_florida_dc>

[SoCalDem]

1. Woo-Hoo.. That'll frost Jebbie's cake

Now we need to get the UN involved too.. We cannot afford to have them steal another one.. One coup is enough...

Foereign countries have a HUGE stake in this election, and we need their help:)

[zonmoy]

18. And how are they going to be able to help

with the diebold machines in place how would they be able to tell if the rethugs have been cheating.

[JoeKSimmons]

22. Foereign countries have a HUGE stake in this election

I agree. Do you feel the stakes are more with the concern of being attacked by us or the lack of aid we have given them since bush was selected?

[arcos]

2. WOW!

:wow: :wow: :wow:

[joeunderdog]

34. A strong shot across the bow. But it'll take more than that...

Winning the Election – The Republican Way: Racism, Theft and Fraud in Florida
http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=217&row=2
snip
The Florida Republicans wanted to block African Americans, who largely vote as Democrats, from voting. In 1999 they fired the company they were paying $5,700 to compile their felony “scrub” lists and replaced them with Database Technologies , who they paid $2.3 million to do the same job.
snip
There were 8,000 Floridians who had committed misdemeanors, but were counted as felons. Their votes were scrubbed. Katherine Harris’ office illegally scrubbed people who’d served time in other states, then moved to Florida, and Jeb Bush’s office illegally barred these people from registering to vote at all.

The biggest wholesale theft occurred inside the voting booths in black rural counties. In Gadsden County, one of the blackest in the state, thousands of votes were simply thrown away. Gadsden used paper ballots which are read by an optical reader. Ballots with a single extra mark were considered “spoiled“ and not counted. The buttons used to fill out the ballots were set up – with approval from Bush and Harris – to make votes appear unclear to the machine. One in eight ballots in Gadsden was voided by the state.
snip
What happened to Choicepoint? Bush is handing them the big contracts in the War on Terror; immigration reviews, DNA cataloging, airport profiling, and their voting systems are being rolled out across the country.


Petition: Stop the Florida-tion of the 2004 election
http://www.workingforchange.com/activism/petition.cfm?itemid=14993

[wicket]

3. fantastic!!!

This is great news!!!! :) :) :D

[SoCalDem]

4. We need monitors all over the US too

The Democratic party in every "iffy" state should start writing and calling to see how we can get this done..

[JoeKSimmons]

23. I wonder if we could define any red state as an "iffy" state

If we couldminitor all the red states I wonder how many of them would turn blue from an honest count?

[bobbieinok]

5. can't they just do an exec order banning non-US citizens from polls?

...

[onehandle]

6. Sweet! Jeb goes Nuts!

"Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said equating Florida's election system with that of a Third World country was insulting. He also said Florida had put in place machinery and voter education programs that made it a model for the nation.

"This is all part of some politically motivated thing that tries to scare people to somehow think their vote is not going to count," Bush said. "That's hogwash, hogwash."

[Vogon_Glory]

11. Not Just The Third World, Either. Rutherford B. Hayes

I'm sure that Jebito would also feel insulted if the rest of us not only compared Florida's electoral system to third world countries, but also to the very corrupt Florida individuals and institutions that gave Republican Rutherford B. Hayes the Presidency over 125 years ago.

Banana Republicans would doubtlessly feel insulted, but the rest of us wouldn't.



:grr: :grr: :grr:

[Say_What]

35. Little brother Jebbie (that POS) doesn't seem to understand

Florida is a third world country--terrorist haven of the US of A.

[Voltaire99]

7. About Pax Christi USA

They sound pretty sane. And not only that, there's a picture on their website of a march against Taco Bell demanding a living wage for farmers. Would that our American Taliban would take a page from this group's book!

http://www.paxchristiusa.org

Pax Christi USA strives to create a world that reflects the Peace of Christ by exploring, articulating, and witnessing to the call of Christian nonviolence. This work begins in personal life and extends to communities of reflection and action to transform structures of society. Pax Christi USA rejects war, preparations for war, and every form of violence and domination. It advocates primacy of conscience, economic and social justice, and respect for creation.

Pax Christi USA commits itself to peace education and, with the help of its bishop members, promotes the gospel imperative of peacemaking as a priority in the Catholic Church in the United States. Through the efforts of all its members and in cooperation with other groups, Pax Christi USA works toward a more peaceful, just, and sustainable world.

Pax Christi is a section of Pax Christi International, the Catholic peace movement.

[Dudley_DUright]

8. Darn, my county (Volusia) did not make the "fraudulent four" list

If these folks want to be really useful, they should also monitor the process of purging supposed felons from the voter roles. Some people that were wrongly kicked off the roles in 2000 still have not been reinstated.

[Mountainman]

9. I guess they don't want Bush to get reselected.

How embarrassing to have some group who monitors 3rd world elections to monitor theirs!

Jeb won't allow it. "Observers? We don't need no stinking observers!"

[MasonJar]

10. If there is justice in this life, Jeb will reap what he has sown in NOV

[Florida_Geek]

12. I will always believe the three black precincts in Duval

were voter fraud in 2000. I am glad they will be watched this time.

[dand]

13. Who will monitor the five Republican precinct captains

on the supreme court, and the diebold machines

[colonel odis]

20. our hackers just need to be better than their hackers

if rove's going to play like that, i would imagine some enterprising, left-leaning hackers might take it upon themselves to screw around with the vote totals, too.

not encouraging anything like that at all, atty gen. ashcroft. i was just thinking out loud. i also know absolutely zilch about hacking.

[struggle4progress]

39. Nobody that I know would even contemplate such a thing

[never cry wolf]

14. This is great

We have to get them up to speed on BBV as well!

[never cry wolf]

15. Don't forget to rate the story....n/t

[teach1st]

16. It is insulting, Jeb..

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said equating Florida's election system with that of a Third World country was insulting.

I'm sure the Third World countries won't be too upset.

[Rebellious Republican]

32. What, Jeb "I have some devious plans" Bush is insulted, all I

can say to him is, GET OVER IT! What a POS.

[w4rma]

17. Good! (n/t)

[Judi Lynn]

19. Not a minute too soon, either. n/t

[tom_paine]

21. Hurrah! Hopefully they can help make it more difficult to cheat

(on the other hand, as so many have mentioned, Florida has moved from the MANUAL DISEFRANCHISEMENT column to the ELECTRONIC DISEFRANCHISEMENT column.

Ans some Bushevik with all the codes in his pocket sitting on his ass munching a donut on Sub-Level 3 in Langley HQ (or the RNC) can make Florida's Diebold Machines sing.

While I'm happy and grateful to PaxChristiUSA, I wonder if they aren't 4 years too late.

[Karenina]

26. Have the (mostly black) names

"*shrub-scrubbed" from the rosters by Choicepoint, one of their loyal companies- been reinstated in Florida? Why do I doubt it? :shrug:

[tom_paine]

29. Check gregpalast.com, but I am guessing "no"

WWFMD?

No. The answer is absolutely "no".

[pinto]

24. Yo! Ipso facto! Habeas Corpis et other Latin, legal exclamations!

[slinkerwink]

25. it's so sad that we have to come to this because we don't trust our

own voting system.

[Lindsay]

28. I was thinking the same thing, Slinkerwink.

Doesn't exactly make ya proud to be an American.

[struggle4progress]

40. I hope there's no crookedness for them to find.

Actually, I hope they even get into the country.

[Beetwasher]

27. How Embarrassing

We've supposedly been a democratic republic for over 200 years and it comes to this...That being said, I'm glad they'll be there...

[pinto]

30. I agree, it's embarrassing, when you take a step back....but

bring em on. We can't have another round of electoral questioning like 2000. Like you said, it's a basic assumption in our 200+ year history as a democracy, and has been tested by poltico ops all along the way. Bushco happened to bring it to a head, at this time. Call it growth.....

[Just Me]

31. Tee hee hee haw HAW HAW!!!!

Oh, my,...now, that is insulting to the Bushites,...no way around it. A really, really good thing for voters. Sure wish this organization would plant itself at every poll Diebold is in place and do a separate count of the paper trail to compare with the 'puter production.

[gristy]

33. This is just too wonderful for words...

This is one of the things I have been waiting to hear for almost a year now. I have sent letters to Carter, whose organization monitors elections in other countries. I have written George Soros, who has the money to finance a nation-wide election monitoring effort. And finally, someone has stepped up to the fuckin' plate. I imagine Jeb Bush is now officially constipated, and Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood is hiding in the basement.

Well, I found the words, I guess. This is wonderful.

[Crachet2004]

36. I appreciate the gesture, but printers need to be attached to those

damn voting machines, so there is a record. Another thing that might help is credible foreign polling done right before the election.

Take extremely large samples to reduce the margin of error, to approaching zero. This will cost money, but if somebody doesn't do it, you know that damn Jeb is gonna steal it! He looks like a chicken thief! Shifty eyed, too.


There should be a printout with two copies...one for the state, and one the individual can keep, or turn back in, if there is a problem recounting the state copies.

Or you could go back to paper ballots like we use where I vote...and just color in the circles. They act like that would be a huge cost, nationwide, but I don't believe them. How could it be, if we still use paper in some parts of WV?

If ballots cost a dollar a piece (and they wouldn't) it would still be less that 200 million dollars, nationwide. That is how I think it should be done. Any machine can be 'gamed', even the older, simpler, more primitive ones. Just use paper ballots.

[Jose Diablo]

37. The last thing the world needs right now is

a repeat of the nazi's in control of the most powerful military in the world. The worst thing that could happen at this critical stage in history (running out of cheap energy) is some crooks doing a smash and grab of the the resources needed to build new infrastucture to get us over the bump.

I am glad the world is helping us get ride of those posers.

[clyrc]

38. Finally something to make me laugh in LBN

jeb feels insulted? Well, I've been outraged beyond belief for years now by him and his clan. I want every legitimate watchdog we can get in Florida for the next election.

[Lugnut]

41. Wooooo hooooo!!!!!!

This is the best news I've had all day. :)

[otohara]

42. What About Ohio & Michigan

those evil bastards will focus on stealing O & M - while the monitors are in Florida

[Layman]

43. Where was Janet?

Am I wrong for holding a grudge against the former Attorney General for not lifting a finger to investigate and prosecute the perps? I mean it was her home state fercristsakes. She was the top legal enforcer of the laws of the land and she just sleepwalked through the wholesale theft ala voter intimidation and washing the voting registrations lists. Weren't those federal violations of the Voting Rights Act?