International election observers from the OSCE will not be allowed to monitor the U.S. midterm elections on November 3. This is the first time in over twenty years that Washington has declined the invitation.
The OSCE, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, has monitored twelve U.S. federal elections since 2002. It is not the EU that sends observers, but rather a security cooperation organization in which both the U.S. and Russia participate.
The observers are from the Parliamentary Assembly and the ODIHR. They are examining polling places, voter rolls, early voting, and campaign financing—the same kinds of missions the U.S. typically requires other countries to accept.
The 1990 Copenhagen Document, signed by all member countries, states that observers should be invited. The United States is one of those countries. Pere Joan Pons, chair of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, calls the decision a significant departure from established democratic practice.
Why doesn't the U.S. want this?
The midterm election covers the entire House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate. It is the first major election since Trump returned to the White House. Election administration is already a contentious issue in the U.S.: ID requirements, mail-in ballots, party observers, and allegations of fraud are flying in both directions.
Excluding the OSCE does not mean the election will be canceled. It means that the external oversight that Washington has for years demanded of others now does not apply to its own election day. The question other countries will ask is simple: if the U.S. does not allow the OSCE in, why should they allow American observers in next time?
Trump realizes that the Republicans are going to lose, and so he wants a chance to cheat; he's not to be trusted.
It certainly seems to be exactly that.
That sounds like a corrupt organization to me.