It used to be that the United States was the standard bearer for freedom and democracy, that we were the country others looked to for help and guidance on how to run a free and honest election.
But no more and it's a very sad thing.
Due to the rise in voter suppression efforts by the Republican Party, the ACLU, NAACP and other civil rights organizations have requested that the United Nations monitor this year's general election, in fear that millions could be harassed or even forbidden from voting.
The Organisation of Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) will deploy observers to forty states across the country to monitor the election process from voter registration to post-election administration:
"The mission will analyse the legislative framework and its implementation and will follow campaign activities, the work of the election administration and relevant government bodies, including voter registration, and the resolution of election disputes."
This comes on the heels of efforts by True the Vote, a Tea Party backed group, to "monitor" elections in key battleground states, which amounts to little more than voter suppression through intimidation tactics and measures bordering on illegal:
Researching the registry means that True the Vote has purchased voter rolls from states and counties, then circulated the lists to their gaggle of unsupervised volunteers, who are urged to challenge the registrations of voters that think may be improperly registered. The True the Vote "work at the polls" entails training volunteers to be "poll watchers" – people to go to the polls on election day and aggressively challenge the registration, the identity, or the eligibility of prospective voters.
To "fix what needs fixing" True the Vote has also pushed legislative efforts to further restrict access to voting, including stringent new voter identification laws.
In practice, the TTV strategy has deterred people from registering to vote, created an atmosphere that frightens voters from showing up at the polls, overloaded election officials with baseless challenges, and slowed the vote by gumming up the process