Texas threatens to arrest international monitors sent to watch US election
A handful of international election monitors have touched down in the US to swing by polling places next month when voters cast ballots for the president, but officials in the state of Texas have issued them a warning: you’re not welcome.
State Attorney General Greg Abbott has sent a scathing letter to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, threatening to arrest any of the election auditors that have been dispatched to America to ensure that voters won’t be disenfranchised, discriminated against or intimidated when they take to the polls on November 6.
Since the establishment of the OSCE in the 1970s, the organization has strived to ensure that democratic and lawful elections occur across the planet, routinely examining the political climate before voters take to the polls to make sure ballots can be cast fairly and without complications in numerous countries across Europe and North America. The OSCE was recently extended an invitation to come stateside from several domestic group — including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), among others — because of what those organizations call “an unprecedented and sophisticated level of coordination to restrict voting rights in our nation” due largely in part to a number of newly-enacted laws that limit who and how can cast a ballot.
“Recent state-level legislative initiatives to limit early voting and introduce stricter voter identification have become highly polarized,” the OSCE writes in an interim report filed earlier this month. “Democrats are concerned that these would disenfranchise eligible voters, while Republicans believe they are necessary to protect the integrity of the vote.”
http://rt.com/usa/news/texas-osce-election-abbott-231/
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