Foreign observers point out election flaws

[Neo]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/....ap/index.html

Two observer groups have been examining U.S. voting systems for compliance with international standards for free and fair elections.

David MacDonald, a Canadian member of a team organized by the San Francisco human rights group Global Exchange, said observers were shocked to find that partisan officials run U.S. elections.

Requiring election officers to be nonpartisan "is as close as you can get in democratic or electoral terms to a universal norm," MacDonald said after visiting Missouri, where Secretary of State Matt Blunt, a Republican, is the chief electoral officer and a candidate for governor. "There are some very serious problems that need to be addressed.

In a classic showing of arrogant myopic xenophobia, Republicans denouced any advice from outsiders:

The very idea disgusts some Republicans, who say it sends a message of weakness and compromises U.S. sovereignty.

"What do foreign observers bring to American elections?" Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Florida, wrote to constituents. "We are not a country suppressed by tyranny and aggression; we are a free nation built upon a foundation of citizen democracy."

Comprises U.S. sovereignty? Are you kidding me? You know those movies where it's the future and we live in a unified world which is part of a larger cosmos? Yeah, we're never going to get there.