David MacDonald, a Canadian member of a team organized
by the San Francisco human rights group Global Exchange, said observers were shocked to find that partisan officials
run U.S. elections.
Requiring election officers to be nonpartisan "is as close as you can get in democratic or
electoral terms to a universal norm," MacDonald said after visiting Missouri, where Secretary of State Matt Blunt, a
Republican, is the chief electoral officer and a candidate for governor. "There are some very serious problems that
need to be addressed."
... The report said touch-screen machines that don't print paper ballots for use during
a possible recount could delay the election outcome beyond November 2 and create more, not less, controversy.
It
faulted procedures with absentee and provisional ballots, cited reports of voter intimidation and
disenfranchisement, and criticized moves by a few states to allow overseas and military voters to fax rather than
mail completed ballots.
The report also noted that many of the reforms envisioned by an election assistance law
enacted after the disputed 2000 presidential election won't be in place by Nov. 2, and raised concerns that the
right to vote "may not be evenly applied or protected throughout the country."
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