The Trump administration is declining to invite a key group of international election observers to monitor the upcoming midterm elections, ending a practice that dates back more than two decades and sparking sharp criticism from Democrats.
Since 2002, the U.S. has routinely invited observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to watch and report on midterm and presidential contests. Those observations are carried out by the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).
The White House is standing firm.
“No other nation has done more to advance the cause of human freedom and representative government. American elections will be administered, participated in, and observed by American citizens,” White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said when asked why the administration withheld an invitation.
The U.S. is one of 57 members of the OSCE, an international body created after the Cold War to promote democracy and human rights in post-Soviet states. The ODIHR’s election-monitoring mission has no enforcement mechanisms and does not determine whether an election is legitimate. Its purpose is to assess the election environment and make recommendations.
The ODIHR and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly called the decision “regrettable” in a statement last month.
“After more than two decades in which the United States has welcomed OSCE observers to its federal elections, this decision represents a significant departure from an established democratic practice,” said Pere Joan Pons, president of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly.
Democrats quickly piled on.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., the outgoing ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the move is “deeply antithetical to the spirit of freedom, democracy and transparency that defines our elections.”
Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., the House ranking member on the Helsinki Commission, went further, accusing the president of planning trouble.
“I think Trump doesn’t want any observers at all because I think he’s got some hijinks that he’s going to lay on the nation on Election Day,” said Cohen, who is retiring from Congress at the end of this term after his seat was redistricted.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., the Senate ranking member on the Helsinki Commission, noted the OSCE has been welcomed by administrations of both parties, including during Trump’s first term.
“Booting the OSCE monitors is a warning sign for democracy that puts the U.S. in the company of Russia and Belarus,” Whitehouse said.
Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., the chair and co-chair of the Helsinki Commission, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Critics have suggested the president may be laying the groundwork to dispute election results that do not favor Republicans.
The Democracy Renewal Group, founded by about 200 former U.S. Agency for International Development staffers who were purged when the Trump administration gutted the agency, along with other democracy professionals, also condemned the decision, likening the U.S. to Russia, Belarus and Yugoslavia under Slobodan Milosevic in 2000.
Meanwhile, state officials, mostly Democrats, are preparing for possible federal efforts to assert control over state-run elections, according to VoteBeat.org, including concerns about immigration officers at polling stations and attempts to seize ballots.
Last month, the Supreme Court blocked Trump from implementing an executive order critics said restricted access to mail-in voting.
Rep. Joe Morelle, D-N.Y., said Democrats are drafting legal pleadings in case of any attempts to disenfranchise voters.
“We’re prepared, but people should have confidence and should go out and vote,” Morelle told MS NOW.
