Foreign observers find faults with U.S. election preparedness

ERICA WERNER

Associated Press   21 October 2004

WASHINGTON - Foreign observers who watched election preparations in Florida and other parts of the United States have concluded that there's plenty of room for improvement. Among the changes they recommend: public financing of elections.

"There are a number of existing problems that pose a substantial threat to the integrity of the 2004 general election in the United States," a 20-person delegation invited by the San Francisco human rights group Global Exchange said in a report set for release Thursday.

"The delegation heard from many citizens whose faith in U.S. electoral processes remains shaken by the events of 2000."

The observers, who include election officials and former lawmakers from 15 countries, spent a week last month in Arizona, Georgia, Florida, Missouri and Ohio. Florida was picked because of the disputed 2000 election, Ohio because it is so hotly contested, Arizona because elections there are publicly financed, Missouri because of voter disenfranchisement in St. Louis in 2000 and Georgia because it is a rare state where voters use only touch-screen voting machines.

The observers found what they viewed as problems_including touch-screen machines that don't print paper records of a vote and elections run by partisan officials.

Among their recommendations:

_Secretaries of state and other election administrators should be nonpartisan;

_Touch-screen voting machines should produce paper records;

_Convicted felons who have served their time should automatically have their voting rights restored, which does not happen in seven states;

_Public financing of elections should be adopted.

As a short-term improvement for Nov. 2, the observers recommended more nonpartisan observers at all levels, arguing such scrutiny would increase voter confidence.

A second team of Global Exchange observers will return to Florida, Missouri and Ohio for Election Day, one of two foreign observing teams that will be watching the election. The second group is from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and was invited by the Bush administration.

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