July 22, 2004 | Read Time: 3 minutes
For many Americans, the phrase “election monitoring” conjures images of former President Jimmy Carter
traveling abroad to observe the first vote of a fledgling democracy.
But a project headed by a human-rights organization in California is turning that stereotype on its head: Global Exchange is inviting 20 people from foreign countries to monitor the U.S. elections in November and “help rebuild trust in our democracy.”
“It’s all about building confidence among the electorate,” says Ted Lewis, director of the monitoring project, known as Fair Elections. “The 2000 election was resolved in the midst of a constitutional crisis — it’s important that Americans feel absolute confidence in our process.”
Global Exchange is inviting monitors from countries with “exemplary democracies,” such as Australia, Brazil, Japan, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The monitors can investigate anything they want, but will be asked to pay special attention to three “controversies that are undermining U.S. citizens’ confidence” in the value of their vote: allegations of disenfranchisement of some minority and poor voters; concerns about the security of touch-screen voting machines; and the influence of corporate and personal wealth.
The monitoring project is expected to cost more than $300,000. Atlantic Philanthropies, which is based in Bermuda and supports the reinstatement of voting rights for ex-felons in the United States, has committed $200,000 to the project.
United Nations Request
Separately, in early July, nine members of the U.S. House of Representatives asked the United Nations to send observers to “ensure free and fair elections in America.”
“As lawmakers, we must assure the people of America that our nation will not experience the nightmare of the 2000 presidential election,” wrote Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, a Democrat from Texas, in a letter to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.
The U.N. denied the request, saying it does not intervene unless asked to do so by the national government or an electoral authority.
The request by members of Congress has received more press attention than has the Fair Elections project. Pardonmyenglish.com, a Web site where Republicans are encouraged to post their viewpoints, has called the request for U.N. monitors “a total joke.”
But Mr. Lewis says Americans should not become smug.
“Almost everyone knows that our system can be improved,” says Mr. Lewis. “We’ve been building a better and better democracy for a few hundred years now, and we’d like that to continue.”
Fair Elections will bring 20 people to the United States in September for “pre-electoral” monitoring. The group will be briefed in Washington, and then fan out to Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, and Ohio — states at the center of some of the controversies the monitors have been asked to examine. For example, California is a leader in experimenting with electronic voting, Arizona has enacted legislation that reduces the impact of private wealth on elections, and St. Louis, Mo., was plagued by voter-list problems during the 2000 elections.
The monitors will release a report on their findings in October. Eight of the monitors will return to the United States for the November election, and they will travel to any areas where controversies erupt in the wake of the election.
