"I proudly join my colleagues, the following Members of Congress: Eddie Bernice Johnson, Julia Carson, Joseph Crowley, Elijah Cummings, Danny Davis, Raul Grijalva, Michael Honda, Carolyn Maloney and Jerrold Nadler, in requesting that the United Nations (UN) send election observers to our nation to monitor the November 2004 presidential elections.

During the 2000 elections, in my district alone (Duval County) there were approximately 27,000 ballots that were spit out by faulty machines. A disproportionately large percentage of these votes came from City Council Districts 7, 8, 9 and 10, primarily African American residential areas. Even more disturbing to me was that the Supervisor of Elections' office didn't release these figures to local officials until after the 72 hour deadline had passed. As a result, there were no legal avenues to demand a recount.

Moreover, it often goes unpublished that Florida Governor Jeb Bush spent $4 million of taxpayer money to purge a list of suspected felons from the rolls across the state: but whether or not this list was accurate was of little importance to Governor Bush. Apparently, it was the responsibility of the accused citizen to correct his or her status. Only later did we learn that the reason many of the people were incorrectly purged (estimates go as high as 50-57,000) was merely because their name was the same as, or similar to, one of the purged felons. For this reason, during the 2000 elections, some of the local election supervisors went so far as to refuse to purge names from the list of their voter rolls because, they argued, 'they did not have faith in how the state compiled its list of disqualified voters.'

Moreover, as part of a grassroots effort to encourage voters, particularly minorities, to get out to the polls, I organize motor voter drives. Yet during the last election, many voters, especially African Americans, were wrongly purged from registration lists, and many who had signed up at state motor voter vehicle offices never had their voter registration fully processed. As a result, these voters were disenfranchised as well. It is for this reason that provisional balloting is so important (wherein if a voter has not re-registered after moving within the same county, he or she may cast a provisional ballot at the polling place of their current residence). Unfortunately, to this day, the state of Florida STILL does not completely follow through with provisional balloting because, in Florida, if one casts a provisional ballot in a voter precinct which is not their own, their vote will be discarded.

After the stolen elections of 2000, the American public was assured that we would never see a repeat of the 2000 election. But now, the state of Florida not only has a system in place that records electronic votes without a paper trail (that once again could possibly lead to altering or tampering with the election results), but the Florida Secretary of State's office has begun yet another questionable purge of felons.

As a Member of Congress from a district that saw first hand how the 2000 election was completely fraudulent, I believe that an international body is needed, particularly in light of the fact that the necessary election reforms (such as full funding of HAVA) that should have been put in place since the 2000 election, have not been entirely carried out. That said, there remains a dangerous possibility that we may see a repeat of the flagrant violations of civil rights in the upcoming 2004 election. In the last election, there were unquestionable conflicts of interest that adversely affected the election results. Many of the problems that were caused in the last election were caused by the unfairness of the people that were in charge of ensuring a fair election in the state of Florida. Not only did Governor Bush obviously support his brother's election, but the Secretary of State (the very agent responsible for ensuring a fair election) served as the top campaign official in the state of Florida for the George W. Bush presidential campaign. What I believe is needed is a neutral party (like the United Nations) to oversee and monitor our elections in an unbiased manner, just as they monitor other elections throughout the world, often at the urging of The United States.

I will continue to do everything within my power to ensure that not one voter is denied the right to vote, and our nation does not witness a repeat of the 2000 elections!"