Fewer foreign election observers are coming to monitor U.S. this year

For the ninth time, observers affiliated with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) have come to the United States to watch over an election and recommend improvements, a mission little-noticed by most Americans.

But the 2020 campaign is different.

As fears rise about voter suppression, violence and a potentially contested outcome in the United States, the Europeans say they hope their efforts will help assure Americans that the vote is legitimate.

"This is one of the most important elections we have ever observed as the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly," said Roberto Montella, secretary general of the group, which will dispatch 59 lawmakers and a staff of 16 to monitor voting in 10 states and the District of Columbia.

"One of the reasons is that this is the first time in my recollection that the incumbent cries foul before the competition actually takes place and before the outcome is known," Montella added.

OSCE officials note that no election anywhere is perfect, and that many nations are undergoing a period of strident political divisiveness. But rarely have so many questions arisen about the validity of American elections, which are often considered as the epitome of fair and free voting.

In part to address the concerns, the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) has sent a pared-down group of 30 observers who will fan out to 28 states, aided by 15 electoral experts who will operate from Washington. That is far fewer than the 500 observers they initially recommended. But the raging coronavirus pandemic and travel restrictions made it difficult to recruit more people.

The two OSCE observer groups will coordinate their efforts and announce their preliminary findings the day after the election, then issue a complete report two months later.

In an interim report released Thursday, ODIHR observers outlined their concerns that the election will be hampered by the impact of the coronavirus and diminished voter confidence in its fairness.

The report said that $400 million in federal funds given to states to address health and safety issues stemming from the pandemic may not be enough to guarantee safe and well-organized elections.

In an unusually blunt warning, they worried that President Donald Trump's unsupported assertions of widespread voter fraud could undermine trust in the election itself.

"Throughout the campaign, President Trump has repeatedly claimed that the elections would be marred by fraud, especially in relation to absentee and particularly postal voting," the report said.

Many observers, it added, "expressed grave concerns about allegations from a sitting president casting doubt on the democratic process without presenting any evidence that the integrity of the election process could be systematically jeopardized. On a number of occasions, President Trump refused to commit to a peaceful transition of power if he lost the elections, using this stance to reaffirm his lack of trust in the process."

In such a polarized political environment, the report said, the observers fear for "the potential for political violence in the aftermath of the elections."

With their numbers so depleted, the observations this year will be more anecdotal than usual, as the smaller teams look for impediments to voting, such as long lines outside polling stations and signs of voter intimidation.

But OSCE officials are confident they can produce an accurate and credible report because the observers will have spent six weeks preceding Nov. 3 talking to local election officials. In previous elections, their recommendations have included restoring voting rights to felons who have completed their sentences and making more accommodations for voters with disabilities and other hindrances.

But some Europeans worry that the number of observers will be insufficient in a country as vast as the United States.

That prompted Martin Schirdewan, a German member of the European Parliament from a left-leaning party, to urge three European multilateral organizations to send more observers.

Schirdewan said he has grown increasingly alarmed by reports of voter suppression and intimidation, armed groups formed by white supremacists and Trump's refusal to commit to a peaceful transition of power if he loses.

"I'm really a friend of the United States," he said, noting that the U.S. Army liberated his grandfather from a concentration camp during World War II. "I see a real danger of the United States falling into a state of authoritarianism and anti-democratic rule. European institutions need to step up. We have to take a stand, as responsible Europeans, before the election, and make clear we expect nothing less than a democratic vote."

Countries and organizations that want to send monitors to the United States must be invited by the State Department, a formality always granted the OSCE because the United States is a member. All visa requirements are waived. In 2018, the OSCE even included two Russian observers for the midterm elections.

This year, the State Department also invited observers from the Organization of American States, which represents countries in North and South America. But the OAS has not yet announced whetherit will send anyone, and a spokesman for OAS headquarters in Washington said more information was not immediately available.

A European diplomat, speaking on the condition of anonymity to be frank about the concerns, said many governments are watching from afar with a sense of "befuddlement, wonder and deep worry as well." Another described the mood as "apprehensive."

But others in the European Union are confident that the United States will live up to its ideals.

"The E.U. is following the U.S. presidential elections with great interest," David McAllister, a German Christian Democrat who is chairman of the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs, said in an emailed statement. "I strongly believe in the U.S. democratic and constitutional system of checks and balances."