Newsgroup: it.politica.pds
Titolo: Elezioni USA

http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/96487/1/
nternational Observer Team Urges Reforms in U.S. Electoral Process
Jim Lobe
OneWorld US 
Thu., Oct. 21, 2004
WASHINGTON, D.C., Oct 21 (OneWorld) - A team of international
observers who are monitoring the November 2 elections is calling for
major reforms in the U.S. electoral process to promote confidence in
the voting system. 
Several of the recommended reforms will require legislation, thus
making it impracticable for them to be implemented before this year's
elections the run-up to which has been marred by accusations and
counter-accusations of ''dirty tricks'' by both Republicans and
Democrats designed to affect voter turnout. 
In a letter to the chairmen of both major parties Wednesday, the
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), the nation's largest
coalition of civil and human rights groups, called for both to ''cease
and desist'' in any efforts to conduct aggressive challenges to voters
at the polls, particularly those that are "likely to impact minority
voters more harshly than non-minority voters." 
"We have worked too hard for too long to enfranchise racial and ethnic
minority voters in this country," wrote LCCR director Wade Henderson. 
"We fought for the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and other laws to ensure
that every American has a right to vote and to have his or her vote
counted." 
The 20-member international team, which was invited by Global
Exchange, a human rights group based in San Francisco, compiled a
48-page report, based on visits with polling officials and independent
experts in 
Washington, D.C., Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Missouri and Ohio over
the past month. 
The group is one of two international delegations that are monitoring
the elections. A second, official delegation from the Organization and
Security Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) was invited by the State
Department in August. 
While it will not have the authority to assess the fairness of the
vote, it is expected to issue a report on any problems or shortcomings
it witnesses as part of a new program for all 55 member-states of the
OSCE. 
The Global Exchange group, which includes election-monitoring experts
from four continents, is a non-governmental initiative that will rely
on the voluntary cooperation of election officials in the District of
Columbia and the five states it is monitoring. 
Participants include experts from Argentina, Australia, England,
Canada, Chile, Ghana, India, Ireland, Mexico, Nicaragua, the
Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, Wales, and Zambia. 
While the group said that state and state officials had already
implemented a number of reforms to deal with problems that became
apparent in the 2000 elections, "there are a number of existing
problems that pose a substantial threat to the integrity of the 2004
General Elections in the United States." 
It also acknowledged that too little time remains to correct some of
them, those that could ensure greater transparency and participation
in the process should be implemented to the greatest extent possible
under the law. 
Among the most-important changes called for in the group's report is
to assure a ''paper trail'' for touch-screen voting which is being
introduced in a number of states across the country. 
"Transparency at the polls is critical and cannot be readily
established without voter verification," the group said, adding that,
where touch-screen voting is used, an independent agency and a
parallel monitoring process should be adopted to achieve "optimum
transparency." 
In addition, the group called for the universal use of provisional
ballots, or those that can be cast by voters who, for one reason or
another, might otherwise be disqualified for technicalities, such as
showing up at the wrong voting site. 
So long as the voter is indeed eligible to vote, s/he should not be
denied the opportunity to cast a ballot that counts, according to the
delegation which said that was "surely the intention of the Help
America Vote Act of 2002." 
This was a particular concern of delegation members who visited Ohio.
The report noted their concerns over a recent directed by the state's
secretary of state discouraging poll workers from providing
provisional ballots to voters who go to the wrong voting precinct. 
They also found that the bulk of voter registration and education
outreach is carried out by civic groups that have not been provided
with confirmation of new voter registrations. Both practices, it said,
may discourage turnout and disproportionately affected low-income
minority groups. 
For the longer term, the delegation strongly criticized the lack of
independent and impartial bodies to administer, oversee, and certify
the elections, rather than the reliance by the current system on
monitoring by individuals affiliated with political parties. 
"Partisan oversight and administration of elections is not the
international norm," the report stated, "as it builds in the
possibility for the perception of conflicts of interest." 
"One of the surprising things we learned is that most voting
jurisdictions have no mechanisms for non-partisan polling
observation," said David MacDonald, a former Canadian Minister of
Parliament, who co-chaired the delegation. 
"The Democrats get to pick their poll monitor, and the Republicans
pick theirs. But who represents the interests of the growing
percentage of Americans who are Independents?" 
Moreover, the group endorsed recommendations made by the OSCE, the
Carter Center for Human Rights, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights,
and other expert bodies that have called for independent, non-partisan
poll-watchers and called as well for U.S. states to invite domestic
and international observers to future elections "to help create an
environment of civic transparency." 
The group also called for the enfranchisement of former felons who
have served their time in prison and strongly criticized laws of the
kind that disenfranchised tens of thousands of Floridians in the 2000
election and still exist in Florida, Virginia, Nebraska, Mississippi,
Kentucky, Iowa, Arizona, and Alabama. 
"This practice falls outside of international or even U.S. norms and
is an unreasonable restriction that creates subcategories of
citizenship," the group said. 
In Florida, the group expressed special concern about possible
challenges by election monitors, the lack of independent review of
electronic voting machines that created so much havoc in 2004, and the
continued felony-related disenfranchisement of minority voters. 
It also called for greater public financing of elections, particularly
in view of the disproportionate degree that private funders play in
campaigns for Congress. 
"In circumstances where the amount a candidate spends is directly
related to the likelihood of success, it is not surprising that voters
may sense that politicians are more concerned with big campaign
contributors than with individual voters," the group said.  

dal Manifesto del 23
ELEZIONI USA 
La strategia del broglio 
Repubblicani al lavoro in tutta l'Unione
JOHN A. MANISCO
La strategia repubblicana di sopprimere il voto democratico non si
concentra solo negli stati in bilico ma in tutti gli stati
dell'Unione. In California, malgrado l'ordine emanato a maggio dal
segretario di stato Kevin Shelley di fornire su richiesta una scheda
elettorale cartacea agli elettori che non si fidano di esprimere il
loro voto sulle macchine «tocca schermo», i funzionari di varie contee
controllate dal partito del presidente hanno ricevuto l'ordine di non
informare gli elettori di questa opzione. «Sono offeso dal fatto che
lo stato mi ordini di non informare persone sui loro diritti»,
dichiara Ed Cherin, funzionario elettorale della contea di Santa
Clara. E' bene ricordare che tutte le compagnie private che forniscono
queste macchine sono in mano a dirigenti legati al partito
repubblicano e i loro codici interni sono protetti da leggi sul
segreto commerciale.
Dopo il caos elettorale del 2000 in Florida il presidente Bush fece
approvare dal congresso l'«Help America Vote Act», una riforma scritta
praticamente sotto dettatura dei repubblicani. La legge impone misure
più rigide per accedere al voto ma permette agli elettori di riempire
schede «provvisorie» nel caso in cui i loro nomi non siano negli
elenchi elettorali. Un problema che causò l'annullamento di circa 1.5
milioni di voti nel 2000.
In quasi tutti gli stati giudici e segretari di stato repubblicani
hanno imposto regole capestro che limitano la validità delle schede
provvisorie. Se, per esempio, voti con una scheda provvisoria in un
distretto sbagliato, ma nella stessa contea in cui abiti, il tuo voto
viene annullato. Ordinanze che danneggiano soprattutto le persone
povere, tendenti a cambiare più spesso abitazione.
Intanto continuano a venire a galla altri casi di studenti truffati da
falsi volontari elettorali che fanno loro firmare appelli per l'uso
terapeutico della marijuana, salvo poi trovarsi iscritti al partito
repubblicano. Ieri studenti di altre due università della Florida
hanno denunciato l'imbroglio. Più di 4000 registrazioni sospette di
studenti sono sotto indagine da parte delle autorità. Il problema è
che, anche se un cittadino non è costretto a votare per il candidato
del partito con cui è registrato, uno studente registrato legalmente
in una contea ma contemporaneamente, e illegalmente, in un'altra,
vedrà il suo voto invalidato.