The Trump administration declined to invite election observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe to witness the midterms, blocking monitors from the regional security group for the first time in more than two decades.

Their absence comes as Democrats and election integrity experts have raised concerns about potential election meddling after the Department of Justice announced plans to send its own monitors.

Washington joins only Russia and Belarus in its decision to exclude OSCE observers.

The OSCE called the U.S. decision “regrettable” and Human Rights Watch said the move “fuels fears of serious human rights concerns around the upcoming elections.”

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told MS NOW the administration’s decision “risks undermining public trust in America’s safe and secure election system.”

“The Trump administration’s decision not to invite international observers to the United States is deeply antithetical to the spirit of freedom, democracy and transparency that defines our elections,” she said, adding that the U.S. should hold “itself to the same standards that we would expect of any other democracy.” 

Asked why the U.S. did not invite observers this year, a State Department spokesperson said OSCE “should focus its limited resources on elections where it can have the greatest impact.”

The OSCE has observed every federal election in the U.S. since 2002. OSCE monitors typically visit some polling stations and issue a report about how the elections were conducted, among other activities.

Monitors do not interfere and have no enforcement power, with their access to polling stations decided by each state.

OSCE observers were invited to observe the 2018 midterms during Trump’s first term and more recently monitored the 2024 elections, which it deemed “well-run” with candidates campaigning “freely across the country.”

In a statement, the OSCE said the Trump administration’s decision “is not in line” with the U.S.’ existing commitments to other countries in the OSCE, in which participating states have agreed to invite observers to their elections.

“Refusing election observers is usually something that countries in a position of weakness do, when they know that they have corrupt or unfair elections,” said Dan Baer, a former U.S. ambassador to the OSCE during the Obama administration. “It’s very strange for the United States, which has been historically a standard setter in free and fair elections, to refuse observers.”

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