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For Immediate Release:                                                                         July 15, 2004

DEMOCRATS ASK UN TO OVERSEE US ELECTIONS
Buyer offers amendment to prohibit United Nations from participating in
Presidential elections

Washington, D.C.-After a stunning request was made by eleven Democratic Members of the U.S. House of Representatives for the United Nations to monitor the 2004 Presidential Elections, Congressman Steve Buyer (IN-04) offered an amendment to H.R. 4818, the Foreign Operations Appropriations, to prohibit federal executive officials from asking the UN to have any authority in determining the outcome of our electoral process.

Congressman Buyer’s statement is as follows:

“Recently, nearly a dozen Members of this Chamber wrote to the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, requesting “election observers to monitor the presidential election in the United States,” suggesting that we need help, that States can’t ensure the integrity of the election process, and therefore, the UN monitors must look over our shoulders to make sure we do it right.”

“For over two hundred years, this nation has conducted elections, fairly and impartially, ensuring that each person’s vote will count. When problems have arisen, Congress and the States have addressed them. Congress passed the Voting Rights Act in 1965. Just last Congress, we enacted the Help America Vote Act to strengthen the election process.”

“Imagine, going to your polling place on the morning of November 2 and seeing blue helmeted foreigners inside your local library, school or fire station. The United Nations has sent monitors to Haiti, Nicaragua, Angola, Mozambique…and now the United States?”

“The constitutional authority to ensure the integrity of U.S. elections rests with the States and the Congress… this amendment merely seeks to keep it that way.”

Click here to view the letter to Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

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