U.N. Observers

As most of you probably know, the U.N. is sending in observers to monitor the U.S. elections. You can read about it here.

The question is, do any of you think that there will be any problems that the observers will notice and bring up? Could they halt the election and demand a recount? Could the battle for the white house be decided by the U.N?

Do they have the power to do this?

[edit on 31-10-2004 by Slayer]

No. They mainly have only the power to report on irregularities and outright voter fraud.

Thier findings however to give many smaller nation the giddies and a "good report card" is a moral and morale boost for any nation trying to hold or be seen as holding above board elections.

That said, I think US political and media circles would (at least privately) suggest the US paying attention to UN views on a domestic issue as a bad joke. Many people don't think the US care a squat about anything else people think about what they do when it affects other nations, so why not?

Originally posted by craigandrew
That said, I think US political and media circles would (at least privately) suggest the US paying attention to UN views on a domestic issue as a bad joke. Many people don't think the US care a squat about anything else people think about what they do when it affects other nations, so why not?

Good point.

But, there is the chance that one of the two major candidates might start caring about the observers if they lose, and they could probably use the U.N. observer's negative observations to their advantage if they were really desperate.

They could take it to court and claim that certain people weren't allowed to vote, and that because of this, it costs them the election, and blah blah blah..

Hopefuly it won't happen though.

Originally posted by Slayer

Couldl the battle for the white house be decided by the U.N?

Do they have the power to do this?

We had better make sure this NEVER becomes the case, even in principle.

Originally posted by edsinger
We had better make sure this NEVER becomes the case, even in principle.

I'm a Kerry supporter, but if the election came down to the U.N. deciding who would be in the white house (not that it could happen) and they chose John Kerry, I'll be damned if I just sit around and let the U.N. decide who is going to be my president.

If Bush gets elected by the people, then he's my president. If my president gets elected by the U.N., he's not my leader, regardless if I support him or not.

From what I know of the UNs power, they can't select our president since in all practical purposes we have a stable in government and economy. What they could do is challenge the results and possibly sanction us if we refused to do something about it.

This is what needs fixing, this crosses all political walls.
The voting machines need to either keep the card that the voter marked,
or provide a verifyable paper trail with numerical encoding. Why I say nemerical encoding, the voter should be able to see the printout and the encoded number this encoded number is meaningless to anyone but the voter and the machine. This concept is currently being looked at and may be the ability to vote via internet connections in the future. If we implement this, the UN and the world could once again look to the US as the Pinnicale of Democracy.

www.blackboxvoting.com has more info.

Nov 2, Vote Early, Vote Honestly and Vote Once.

The UN doesn't choose the leaders in other countries. As was said, the only thing it can do is report and document irregularities and fraud.

Nope, you Americans are masters of your destiny.

Sort of.

This idea of sending observers to the US election seems like some kind of propaganda play. I.e., the major democracies frequently send observers to third world countries to monitor elections. Now the UN does the same to the US to try and establish some kind of faux "equivalence", something like the cheap "moral equivalence" arguments the left is fond of using.

However, the US does need to reform its creaky election machinery.

Actually, if I remember correctly, the UN routinely offers to send observers, whether it's British, Canadian or Malian elections.