AUSTIN, Texas — Threats of arrests made by Texas’ top prosecutor puzzle international voting monitors who say the state didn’t make any fuss while they were there for the 2008 elections.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is warning the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe that its poll watchers face criminal charges if they come too close to voting sites. The U.S. State Department has even been dragged into the fray.

OSCE spokesman Thomas Rymer said Friday that its polling monitors were present in San Antonio in 2008 without issue.

He says the organization is stationing four pairs of observers in Texas, California, New York and Florida – the states with the most electoral votes.

Abbott says he’s leery because OSCE has met with groups that oppose voter ID initiatives.

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