Election monitors for a grapefruit republic

Tom sends a link to the following:

The State Department has invited the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to observe the Nov. 2 election. It marks the first time an outside group will observe a U.S. presidential election.

...The OSCE consists of 55 nations in Europe, Central Asia and North America. The group works on security-related issues and monitors elections in emerging democracies. While the group has no authority over elections, it can act as the world's witness.

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As it should be. But how did the State Department happen upon this idea? They are avoiding something by doing it. What?

The OSCE monitored the 2002 congressional elections in Florida and last year's gubernatorial election in California, also at the invitation of the State Department. Election officials "succeeded somewhat, but not entirely" in correcting problems encountered in 2000, OSCE spokeswoman Urdur Gunnarsdottir said.

Perhaps it lends the illusion of legitimacy, but has no real effectiveness, and the State Department knows that there will be reason for this election's legitimacy to be questioned. They wouldn't be inviting any outside scrutiny out of a desire for transparency. No, there's another angle to the move.

Thirteen Democrats had asked for U.N. monitors in an effort to avoid a repeat of what they consider civil rights violations and voting irregularities in Florida. But they were turned down. Assistant Secretary of State Paul Kelly told the group in a letter that the State Department has invited the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights to observe the presidential elections. Kelly noted that OSCE members, including the United States, agreed in 1990 to allow fellow members to observe elections in one another's countries.

State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said the invitation to the OSCE was not meant to suggest there might be problems on Nov. 2. He said it was "in the interest of transparency and equity for all of us at various times to look at each others' elections."

Uh-huh. Sure.

While we have no objection to outside observers, there is something disconcerting - and even embarrassing - about having the Russian news agency, TASS, telling the world, as it did this week, that fears of voting fraud in the world's leading democracy have prompted oversight by the same group called in to monitor Russian elections, as well as those in the Balkans and other countries where Democratic standards are still evolving.

Personally, I think there is something disconcerting - and even embarrassing - about having an idiot in the president's office. I'm sure the world is well aware of that issue. Voting fraud shouldn't be a much bigger scandal.

More on voting fraud on my webpage here.