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A coalition of U.S. pro-democracy organizations today petitioned the members of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations for international election observers for the upcoming U.S. presidential election. Coalition representatives today visited the U.S. Embassies of ECOSOC member nations New Zealand, Brazil, Uruguay, Bolivia, France, United Kingdom, and Sweden, and plan to visit ECOSOC offices in New York City tomorrow to request election observers to document violations of American voting rights, to guarantee the election results are tabulated accurately, and to bring the force of international law to the United States to guarantee the human rights of American citizens. They submitted the petition now, they said, in order to place their request on record ahead of the coming Election Day.
“The international community came to the aid of past American movements for civil rights, free speech, and independence. We are asking for the same support today. U.S. elections remain undemocratic and rife with voting rights violations, and international election observers are needed.” said Ben Manski, executive director of the pro-democracy group, Liberty Tree.
The petition points to international covenants, conventions and the Declaration for Human Rights itself as a basis for supporting the right of U.S. citizens to freely choose their president and their right to seek international assistance. The petition points to an often overlooked history of voting rights violations that culminated in the challenged U.S. Presidential elections of 2000 and 2004. Many of these voting rights violations were clearly racially based and directly contravene the U.S.’s signature on the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination.
The attention paid to election problems in the 2004 election was both more extensive and more pre-emptive than in 2000 which increased awareness and helped fuel important election law changes. However, the more flagrant bias in the role of the federal government in election law enforcement priorities and what appears to be continued refinement and condoning of election fraud and voter suppression have probably worsened the situation.
“If nothing else, they must document and expose to the rest of the world – that we cannot guarantee our voting rights, nor even enough integrity in our complicated and partisan system that the 2008 Presidential Election will have integrity, integrity which both the elections of 2000 and 2004 clearly lacked,” states Grace Ross, 2006 Massachusetts Gubernatorial Candidate and long-time human rights activist, who spearheaded a request for UN election observers before the 2004 Presidential Elections.
Kevin Zeese of TrueVote warns that “Problems with voting and registration of voters are being reported in many parts of the United States. We have had two questionable and problem-ridden presidential elections in 2000 and 2004. Americans are losing faith in their democracy and international observers are needed to provide an independent, official review of what is occurring.”
Grace Ross explains: “Hundreds of US based organizations have participated in exposing what happened in 2000 and 2004, sued various bodies of government, fought for legislative remedies, have monitored election changes since and are now organizing extensively to educate voters and put various local protections in place as best they can.”
“Suppose the upcoming processes are as tainted as the last ones?” concluded Ms. Ross, “Many fought for domestic solutions last time, all of those attempts failed--and we are no closer to protecting our voting rights this time. Where then can we turn except to ask the international community to stop these human rights violations in the U.S.?”
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