AUSTRIA: EUROPEAN MONITORS FEAR PROBLEMS WITH ELECTRONIC VOTING SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES ELECTIONS

Record ID: 647717

  • Title: AUSTRIA: EUROPEAN MONITORS FEAR PROBLEMS WITH ELECTRONIC VOTING SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES ELECTIONS
  • Date: 24th October 2004
  • Summary: (EU) VIENNA, AUSTRIA (OCTOBER 22, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. WIDE VIEW ORGANISATION FOR SECURITY AND CO-OPERATION IN EUROPE (OSCE) NEWS CONFERENCE 2. (SOUNDBITE) (English) RITA SUESSMUTH, HEAD OF U.S. ELECTION MONITORING TEAM, SAYING: "I can imagine that after all what we heard during this last week that we will have problems with the (voting) machines, that there will be once more the question where (are) the right polling stations for the registered voters." 3. REPORTERS 4. (SOUNDBITE) (English) SUESSMUTH, SAYING: "You have different criteria. First, those states where criticism was very high. On the other side you have the new voting law and there are some states with a broad and full implementation. So to go to those states who have already full implementation of the new law. And third, looking at states where we have a high amount of ethnic minorities. So we will have a 'setting' of criteria and we will have between 10 and 20 states where we are going to have the right 'setting'. It's less geographic than more political and social." 5. WIDE VIEW OF NEWS CONFERENCE; REPORTERS AT NEWS CONFERENCE 1.33 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 8th November 2004 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: VIENNA, AUSTRIA
  • Country: Austria
  • Reuters ID: LVACKQWFABOCBHTWH7F4BFL9MAU4
  • Story Text: European monitors fear problems with electronic
    voting systems in U.S. elections.

    There may be problems with voting machines and some
    voters could have trouble finding the right polling
    stations during the United States presidential elections,
    Europe's biggest rights watchdog said on Friday (October
    22, 2004).

    The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in
    Europe (OSCE) will be sending around 100 observers to the
    U.S. to some 10 to 20 states to monitor the November 2
    election which is expected to be a close race between
    Republican President George W. Bush and Democratic
    challenger, Senator John Kerry.

    "I can imagine that after all what we heard during this
    last week that we will have problems with the (voting)
    machines, that there will be once more the question where
    (are) the right polling stations for the registered
    voters," said Rita Suessmuth, head of the OSCE U.S.

    election monitoring team.

    Suessmuth was referring to reports of problems with the
    new electronic voting systems used at polling stations in
    Florida,
    where many voters came to cast early ballots this week.

    The electronic voting devices are replacing the
    punch-card machine that caused so much controversy during
    the 2000
    election.

    In 2000, the results of the election were held up by a
    36-day legal stand-off over the close Florida vote, which
    only
    ended after the U.S. Supreme Court intervened and ordered
    the recount stopped, handing victory to Bush.

    Suessmuth declined to specify which states the OSCE
    would be monitoring. However, when asked if they would be
    present in the controversial swing-state Florida, she said,
    "Of course".

    Suessmuth said that the other states the OSCE would
    focus on would be those that were most heavily criticised,
    those that have fully implemented the new voting law, as
    well as those with large ethnic minority populations.


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