Members of Congress ask U.N. to monitor November elections

BY TAMARA LYTLE

The Orlando Sentinel

 

WASHINGTON - (KRT) - Haiti. Indonesia. Sierra Leone. They're among the hot spots where international observers have battled violence, corruption and chaos in an attempt to ensure fair and free elections.

Could their next stop be Florida? If U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown and about a dozen others in Congress have their way, the answer is yes.

On Thursday, they called upon the U.N. to monitor U.S. elections in November and said they also will ask the Carter Center to do the same. Both scenarios are unlikely.

Even so, Brown and her colleagues said monitors are needed because of what happened in 2000 and what's unfolding less than four months before the next presidential balloting. Some black voters were disenfranchised in 2000, and there's every indication it could be happening again, Brown said, citing Florida's latest problems with the purging of felons from the voter rolls.

"As a member of Congress from a district that saw first hand how the 2000 election was completely fraudulent, I believe that an international body is needed," said Brown, a Democrat whose district stretches from Orlando to Jacksonville.

Many lawmakers pushing for observers are members of the Congressional Black Caucus, which strongly protested when the ballots of many blacks in Florida were not counted because of election problems.

Rep. Diane Watson, D-Calif., was U.S. ambassador to Micronesia as the 2000 presidential recount unfolded. "I felt then we were no different than a lot of banana republics."

The lawmakers have asked the U.N. to monitor elections and also plan to ask former President Carter's center to do likewise. Bringing in U.N. monitors would require approval by the General Assembly and a formal request from the Bush administration, said U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq.

The chances of that are "slim to none," said American University history professor Allan Lichtman.

John Fortier, research fellow at the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute, said the call for observers was "a political stunt."

International observers are sent to countries just learning to be democracies. Those countries have problems such as voter intimidation and violence.

U.S. election issues have been different. States bought new balloting equipment after the 2000 problems, but federal funding for improvements has been doled out slowly. Electronic voting does not leave a paper trail, bothering some groups. As felons are being purged from voter rolls in Florida, some rightful voters are being accidentally included.

Carter could not be reached Thursday because he was returning from Indonesia, where he monitored the first direct presidential election after 28 years of military rule.

Deanna Congileo, spokeswoman for the Carter Center, said her organization will not get involved in U.S. elections because its focus is abroad and Carter's status as a Democrat could be perceived as partial.