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Originally Posted by wilpuri
There are international observers at American elections as well.
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Not since the run-up to war with Iraq has Western media coverage of a country been so completely and unreasonably one-sided: take, for example, this CBS News report. It features an interview with one Robert Amsterdam, described as "an expert on Russian politics," who gives his view that the election is just a pro forma exercise in which the outcome is predetermined. What they somehow neglect to tell you is that Amsterdam, far from being a disinterested "expert," is in reality a partisan of the jailed oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky – he's Khodorkovsky\'s lawyer.
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He decries a change in the election rules requiring parties represented in parliament to get 7 percent of the vote, up from 5 percent. Yet the Russian system is far more democratic than, say, the American system, where a party that gets 7 percent – or even 10 or 20 percent – is by no means guaranteed a single seat in Congress. That is, if they even manage to get on the ballot. Parties other than the state-sanctioned and state-subsidized Democrats and Republicans face almost impossible hurdles to achieve ballot status – and, even if they do, these "third" parties operate at a tremendous disadvantage not only legally, but in terms of being taken seriously by the "mainstream" media. Is this any better than in Russia? One could make a convincing case that it is far worse.
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Is Russia Democratic?- by Justin Raimondo
As well, take a look at these districts for the US Congress:
Most Gerrymandered Congressional Districts - Maps » Outside The Beltway | OTB
They are these ridiculous shapes in oder to gather the most voters for one party or another (called gerrymandering). These are just some extreme examples of a very common practise in the US.
As for irregularities on election day, just use Google to see how widespread it is in the USA.