Midterms will proceed without OSCE observers for the first time since 2002 after State Department declines invitation

By Anselm Dorsey

WASHINGTON — The Nov. 3 midterms will be the first U.S. federal election since 2002 without observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, after the State Department declined to issue the invitation that previous administrations of both parties extended, a decision the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s top Democrat has criticized.

The State Department has said the choice reflects how the 57-nation body should use its resources. Asked why the United States did not invite observers this year, a department spokesperson said the OSCE “should focus its limited resources on elections where it can have the greatest impact,” MS NOW reported. The administration’s ambassador to the OSCE, Darrell Owens, has been pushing an effort to “reform, refocus, and refine” the organization since his Senate confirmation in June, according to Human Rights Watch. The department is led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

What the OSCE said

The OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and its Parliamentary Assembly announced on Sept. 23 that they had not been invited. In a joint statement, they called the decision “regrettable” and said it “is not in line with the commitments undertaken by all OSCE participating States under the 1990 Copenhagen Document,” which commits members to invite observers from other participating states.

“Election observation is not a judgment on a country or its institutions,” said ODIHR Director Maria Telalian. OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Pere Joan Pons of Spain said the decision “represents a significant departure from an established democratic practice.” According to the statement, the OSCE has observed 12 U.S. federal elections since 2002, including six midterms, and these will be the first for which it has not received an invitation.

Observers were invited for the 2018 midterms during President Trump’s first term, and the OSCE’s mission for the 2024 election, which returned Trump to office, described that vote as “well-run,” according to MS NOW and Human Rights Watch. OSCE monitors visit some polling stations and issue a report; they have no enforcement power, and their access to polling places is decided by each state, MS NOW reported.

Congressional response

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), the Foreign Relations Committee’s ranking member, said in an Oct. 6 statement that the decision “is deeply antithetical to the spirit of freedom, democracy and transparency that defines our elections” and “risks undermining public trust in America’s safe and secure election system.” Shaheen, who said she served as an official election monitor in Georgia in 2012 and in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2022, urged the administration “to respect the role of independent election observers.”

The Inquisitor did not find a statement on the decision from Foreign Relations Chairman Jim Risch (R-Idaho) or from the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s leaders.

Human Rights Watch, which said it had sought State Department comment without a response, pointed to a 2024 U.S. statement criticizing Russia’s noncooperation with the OSCE, in which the United States said that “for decades, the United States has invited OSCE observers to assess our own elections and encouraged fellow participating States to do the same.” Dan Baer, a former U.S. ambassador to the OSCE under President Obama, told MS NOW that refusing observers “is usually something that countries in a position of weakness do.”

ODIHR and the Parliamentary Assembly said they “remain ready to continue their long-standing co-operation with the United States” and hope to observe future federal elections.

Who was contacted

The Inquisitor asked the State Department, the U.S. Mission to the OSCE, ODIHR’s public affairs unit, Chairman Risch’s committee press office, Ranking Member Shaheen’s office and Chairman Mast’s committee staff for comment, and will update this story with any response.

Photo: Secretary of State Marco Rubio. U.S. Department of State, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).