What are Texas election officials hiding?
Texas, an election model for autocrats
By Editorial Board, WashPost, Published: October 31
WHEN IT COMES to democracy and election transparency, Greg Abbott, the attorney general of Texas, is apparently taking his cues from post-Soviet autocrats like Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Kazakhstan’s Nursultan Nazarbayev.
Like Mr. Putin, whose election czar called international election monitors in Russia “spies,” and Mr. Nazarbayev, who threatened to bar monitors altogether, Mr. Abbott, a Republican, is deeply discomfited that a few of them will be in the Lone Star State on Election Day. He is threatening to have them arrested and criminally prosecuted should they violate a state law that bans political party workers or other loiterers from coming within 100 feet of polling places.
Mr. Abbott issued his bizarre warning to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which has monitored scores of elections around the world, including six in this country since 2002. The United States, which helped create the OSCE, has supported it for decades to promote freedom and democracy worldwide.
One likely effect of Mr. Abbott’s grandstanding, which was seconded by Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), is to hand a propaganda gift to dictators and autocrats everywhere. They may now cite his example as evidence that the United States is no more open to electoral scrutiny from outsiders than they are. Don’t mess with Texas — or with Belarus!
(More here.)
WHEN IT COMES to democracy and election transparency, Greg Abbott, the attorney general of Texas, is apparently taking his cues from post-Soviet autocrats like Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Kazakhstan’s Nursultan Nazarbayev.
Like Mr. Putin, whose election czar called international election monitors in Russia “spies,” and Mr. Nazarbayev, who threatened to bar monitors altogether, Mr. Abbott, a Republican, is deeply discomfited that a few of them will be in the Lone Star State on Election Day. He is threatening to have them arrested and criminally prosecuted should they violate a state law that bans political party workers or other loiterers from coming within 100 feet of polling places.
Mr. Abbott issued his bizarre warning to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which has monitored scores of elections around the world, including six in this country since 2002. The United States, which helped create the OSCE, has supported it for decades to promote freedom and democracy worldwide.
One likely effect of Mr. Abbott’s grandstanding, which was seconded by Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), is to hand a propaganda gift to dictators and autocrats everywhere. They may now cite his example as evidence that the United States is no more open to electoral scrutiny from outsiders than they are. Don’t mess with Texas — or with Belarus!
(More here.)
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