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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: longnshort who wrote (146507)	10/21/2012 2:55:43 PM
From: lorne	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 224763

United Nations to monitor conservative groups at polling places October 20, 2012 By: Joe Newby examiner.com Monitors from the United Nations-affiliated group Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) will be monitoring the activities of conservative groups at polling places in the United States this November, The Hill reported Saturday. Alexander Bolton wrote that the monitors will be "looking for voter suppression activities by conservative groups, a concern raised by civil rights groups during a meeting this week." The term "voter suppression" is the phrase often used to describe efforts at eliminating voter fraud. According to Bolton, 44 monitors from countries like Germany, France, Serbia, Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan will "monitor an array of activities, including potential disputes at polling places." The move has conservatives alarmed, even though the OSCE has sent observers to monitor U.S. elections for years. The reason conservative-leaning groups like True the Vote are concerned is that liberal organizations like the NAACP and the ACLU claim that conservatives are engaged in "a coordinated political effort to disenfranchise millions of Americans — particularly traditionally disenfranchised groups like minorities.” “These activist groups sought assistance not from American sources, but from the United Nations,” True the Vote founder Catherine Engelbrecht told The Hill. “The United Nations has no jurisdiction over American elections.” The OSCE, however, says that it will "observe the overall election process, not just the ballot casting.” “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,” said OSCE spokeswoman Giovanna Maiola. But The Hill said that "observers will follow up on the concerns raised by civil rights groups." “We attended their meeting, we took note of the issues they raised and we asked our observers in the field to follow up on them,” Maiola said. The Hill did not say if OSCE representatives met with True the Vote. Last December, we reported that the NAACP petitioned the United Nations, claiming that efforts to stop voter fraud are really schemes to prevent minorities from voting. True the Vote, a Houston-based organization designed to "restore integrity to the American system of electing its leaders," has come under fire from the Democratic Party and the Obama campaign. Robert Stacy McCain wrote Friday that the organization "has been targeted by threats of investigations, lawsuits and criminal prosecution." "Democrats and their allies perversely claim that it is somehow illegal for True the Vote to help prevent criminal violations of election law," he wrote. Thanks to efforts by True the Vote, Florida law enforcement officials are now looking into allegations that "two people may have broken the law by voting in two different states in a previous election," the Miami Herald reported Thursday. Nevertheless, the organization is now under scrutiny by the United Nations, thanks in part to groups like the NAACP who traditionally oppose voter ID laws and other attempts to stop voter fraud. Despite efforts by the left, Engelbrecht says True the Vote "may surpass a million volunteers" at the polls in November “But we’re very excited about the level of enthusiasm, the number of volunteers, and the fact that we had a positive impact in bringing awareness to this important issue, of election integrity," she said.