Observers Foresee Snags in U.S. Election

ERICA WERNER

Associated Press  28 September 2004

WASHINGTON - Problems loom for the presidential election including voting equipment changes that could delay the outcome past Nov. 2, a group of international observers said Tuesday in a report.

A five-member team from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a 55-state security group invited by the Bush administration, also pointed to problems with voter registration lists and provisional and absentee ballots, allegations of voter intimidation and slow implementation of the Help America Vote Act.

"In general, the nationwide replacement of voting equipment, inspired by the disputes witnessed during the 2000 elections, primarily in Florida, may potentially become a source of even greater controversy during the forthcoming elections," said the 11-page report.

Many of the new touch-screen machines that will be used by up to 50 million voters on Nov. 2 do not produce the paper ballots needed for a manual recount of votes, the report said.

This "may cause postelection disputes and litigation, potentially delaying the announcement of final results," it said.

The OSCE observers were in the United States from Sept. 7-10. A larger group will return for the election and focus on the potential problems noted in Tuesday's report. Among them:

_Slow implementation of the Help America Vote Act of 2002, which authorized $3.86 billion to replace outdated machines and reform election procedures.

_Poorly maintained voter registration lists and a hodgepodge of procedures for handling absentee and provisional ballots could result in voter disenfranchisement and postelection litigation. Provisional ballots are a new feature, meant to allow anyone who shows up at the polls to vote even if their name isn't on precinct lists.

_The report criticized steps by states to allow military and overseas voters to fax rather than mail their completed ballots, calling them inconsistent "with the principle of the secrecy of the vote."

_The observers said the scale of complaints about intimidation of minority voters was difficult to assess but that "such allegations were repeated by Democratic Party representatives, while the Republican Party officials did not seem to share these concerns."

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OSCE: http://www.osce.org/odihr/?pageelections