Depending on who you ask, the Volunteer State earned its moniker from the surplus of manpower who answered the call and came forward for military service in either the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, or the War Between the States. Despite Tennessee’s long and storied history of volunteerism, political conservatives there aren’t exactly stepping up to the plate when it comes to United Nations poll watchers monitoring upcoming elections, as reported by the National Journal on April 9, 2014 and the Knoxville (TN) News Sentinel on April 8, 2014.
The United Nations is reportedly unhappy with Tennessee’s passage of a photo ID-voter law in 2012, so they’ve decided to assign two of their officials, one each from France and Armenia, to keep an eye on random state officials and polling places with standing orders to keep a sharp eye out for any cases of voter suppression.
Unfortunately for the powder blue boys from Turtle Bay, Manhattan, both chambers of the now Republican-controlled legislature in Tennessee have sent a simple, one-sentence bill to the GOP Governor Bill Haslam for his signature. It reads:
Any representative of the United Nations appearing without a treaty ratified by the United States senate stating that the United Nations can monitor elections in this state, shall not monitor elections in this state.
In a move that isn’t lost on many Americans, the United Nations seeks to ensure fairness in US elections, yet has among other oppressive dictatorships the likes of Viet-Nam, Pakistan, Cuba, Saudi Arabia and China seated as members of the UN Human Rights Council.
