Objectives
- To observe objectively the electoral process across the United States of America.
- To advise the local election, state election and national electoral bodies on the results of the observation, for the improvement of electoral practice in the United States.
- To support local election authorities and national election bodies with constructive feedback on areas of concern, so that they may consider legislative change and/or remedial action.
- To analyse the media landscape during the 2022 election.
- To assess public opinion towards administrative aspects of the election.
- To assess electoral violence during and after the election.
Head of Mission’s Overview
Our observer teams are always interested in attending US elections. They are internationally important, as well as being important milestones in US politics. The midterm elections of 2022 were no different, being the elections that immediately followed the presidential elections that elected President Biden and removed President Trump. They were, from an electoral integrity perspective, also the first following the events of 6th January 2021, which saw the invasion of The United States Congress by a violent mob, intent on reversing the results of the election.
These elections, being midterm elections, do not see perhaps the same level of angst as 2020 did, but our observations still show something of a contradiction between the infrastructure of electoral management and the public perception of it.
Elections in the United States are some of the best financed, best monitored and best run in the world, based on our widespread experience of election observation. Tens of thousands of dedicated, civically responsible citizens help with managing elections on a bipartisan basis. However, we would recommend that the United States responds to its international obligations and commitments concerning upholding its status as a world leader in elections.
In 1990, the United States was the leading signatory to the Copenhagen Agreement which created the OSCE and its Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, which means that election observation is a core aspect of an election. All US states should allow election observation, they do not. We would like to thank those that do allow election observation and who welcomed our observers, but we also feel that a credible observation of the United States of America is dependent on having wider access to the voting process, not just in those states that allow it.
Our observers visited election officials in Colorado and Missouri and also met with some in Virginia and Washington DC. This report focuses on the two states where we feel that our observations were sufficiently in-depth and also on our media expert’s perceptions of the media, and social media, landscape in the United States. These reports are in no way exhaustive but we hope are a contribution to helping those areas, and officials, to improve their elections even further.
Our overall impression of those elections we were able to observe, with our small team, was that are extremely well-run and staffed by extremely dedicated election professionals. We continue to believe that the debate around the quality of US administered elections is one that seems to have little or no credibility, based on the areas we observed. Elections there are extremely well run and meet accepted international standards for being free, open, and fair.
