International Observers Monitor US Midterm Elections

International observers were present in the United States, with the purpose of closely monitoring the midterm electionsheld this Tuesday.

London-based nonpartisan Democracy Volunteers visited a polling station in Alexandria, Virginia, with a letter of invitation from city leaders.

The monitoring will help improve “the accessibility and security of the elections and will also spread best practices in the other countries that we look at in trying to improve the quality of democracy in the OSCE region,” said Harry Busz, chief operating officer. of Democracy Volunteers.

For its part, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), based in Austria and which has been monitoring the american elections since 2002, it has sent nearly 200 observers to eight states and the District of Columbia.

Unlike Democracy Volunteers, it turned down a request for voice of america to accompany their observers on Tuesday.

The OSCE has “avoided election day observation coverage in this and other limited election observation missions, as we are not conducting extensive observation at polling stations and do not want to give the impression that we do,” he said. Thomas Rymer, a spokesman for the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, via email.

Several voters interviewed outside the Durant Arts Center polling place in Alexandria expressed mixed feelings about the presence of international observers in their neighborhood.

As a member of the OSCE, the United States, under a 1990 agreement known as the Copenhagen Document, is required to invite international election observers. But not all US states welcome such observers, with some seeing them as potential meddlers.

[Con la colaboración de Steve Herman, periodista de la VOA, desde Washington DC]

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