End UN interference in our elections.(The Right Perspective)

When the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), a United Nations-affiliated organization, sent observers to monitor our elections on November 2, it sparked widespread criticism from conservatives.

Principled conservatives who raised concerns about the observers learned quickly that their fears were well-founded. The "observers" did not simply observe; they passed judgment on our elections using their standards for elections instead of ours.

Rita Suessmuth, head of the OSCE delegation, expressed concern regarding how much our voting laws varied throughout our country. Suessmuth was obviously unfamiliar with the separation of powers and the role it plays in protecting our freedoms. The power of conducting elections was clearly intended by the Founding Fathers of our republic to be in the hands of the states. While some of that separation of power has been eroded by subsequent amendments and through election lawsuits in federal courts, the specific separation of power as explained in The Federalist, No. 59, still stands. Clearly, only the states have the constitutional authority to conduct elections.

The foreign observers also criticized the disenfranchisement of ex-felons who have been barred from voting despite having paid their debt to society, saying, "it fell short of international standards." But once again, each state has the right to establish voter qualifications, and we should not advocate taking that right away from the states.

On the other hand, the OSCE was on solid ground advocating the use of voter-verified paper ballots with electronic voting equipment. Of course, readers of THE NEW AMERICAN have been well-informed on this issue since October 13, 1986, when THE NEW AMERICAN was possibly the first national magazine to cover that topic.

A number of the OSCE observers expressed dismay that they were not allowed to witness the electoral process in places off-limits to non-voters. Barring the public from observing the electoral process is a recent development. Traditionally in America, every aspect of the electoral process, save for the marking of secret ballots, has been totally open to public scrutiny. Openness of our electoral process is one of the great reasons why American elections have traditionally led the world in accuracy, honesty, and public confidence. The OSCE observers, however, did not advocate restoring the American public's right to scrutinize their own elections.

American elections do have problems, but intervention by the federal government, far from being a solution to our problems, has actually been the cause in many cases. In 2002, the U.S. Congress ...