Election observers set for U.S. challenges

By SUSANNA LOOF
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER   22 October 2004

VIENNA, Austria Europe's leading election monitoring agency, known for keeping tabs on voting in trouble spots such as Belarus and the Balkans, is gearing up for a super-sized challenge: observing the U.S. presidential election.

The United States' reputation for smoothly run elections took a beating in 2000, and this is the first time the Organization for Security and Cooperation is sending observers for a U.S. presidential vote.

Some 100 observers will monitor the Nov. 2 election in up to 20 states, including Florida, where a recount of presidential ballots in 2000 exposed major problems in the voting system.

Although no one expects the U.S. vote to cause the same kind of headaches as the hotly contested Oct. 17 balloting in Belarus - which the OSCE said fell "significantly short" of democratic norms - there are fears problems may arise.

"I can imagine after all we heard during this last week that we will have problems with the (electronic voting) machines," said Rita Suessmuth, the head of the 55-nation agency's U.S. election mission.

   
The group warned in a report last month that the failure of some touch-screen machines to print paper ballots for use during a possible recount could delay the election results and create controversy.

The report also faulted procedures for casting absentee and provisional ballots, cited reports of voter intimidation and disenfranchisement, and criticized moves by a few states to allow overseas and military voters to fax, rather than mail, completed ballots.

The Bush administration invited the OSCE to monitor the vote. A core group of observers arrived in the United States on Oct. 7, while others are to follow later, Suessmuth said. The OSCE refused to give the nationalities of the observers, but they must be from countries in the 55-member organization, which includes Belarus, Russia and Tajikistan.

The OSCE monitored the 2002 congressional elections in Florida and several other states.

Despite griping from some rankled Republicans, U.S. officials welcomed the group's mission to the 2004 election and said they appreciated its concerns, said Suessmuth, a former speaker of Germany's parliament.

"One answer was: 'We know (the problems) very well. We are still improving our system and we are in midst of a process and we are happy to have information on what works and what doesn't work and what's necessary for fair, free elections,'" she said.

But Suessmuth, addressing reporters Friday during a stopover in Vienna en route to the United States, acknowledged "that there is also criticism."

The OSCE mission has drawn stinging comments from some Republicans, among them Rep. Jeff Miller of Florida.

"What do foreign observers bring to American elections?" Miller 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."

The OSCE routinely observes elections in well-established democracies like France, Spain and Britain, Suessmuth said. "It's very important that OSCE countries are opening themselves for controls. It creates transparency, it increases credibility," she said.

OSCE observers have monitored 150-plus elections since the group began observing elections in the 1990s.