Any truly democratic system of government is built on the idea that, to quote the Declaration of Independence, governments derive their “just powers from the consent of the governed.”
Democratic elections are the main vehicles for providing this consent, so there has to be confidence that the electoral process in a country, and the results it delivers, truly represent the will of the people.
For this reason, the calls by US President Donald Trump for an investigation of possible voter fraud in November’s election matter. Any allegation of voter fraud is serious, and any such allegation has to be investigated by the relevant authorities.
My office, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, sent a mission to the United States to follow preparations and the campaign ahead of the elections. On Election Day, we were joined by a delegation from the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly to observe voting. Our 298 observers followed electoral activities in 1,059 polling stations in 33 states — observing opening procedures, voting, counting and the tabulation of results.
Our observers did not report any direct evidence of election fraud. Nonetheless, it is clearly up to the authorities to investigate any such allegations.
Last week, my office released its final report on the elections, based on the findings of our observers. That report highlights a number of positive elements of the process, concluding that the elections “demonstrated commitment to fundamental freedoms of assembly and association.” The observers found that procedures were generally followed. and they assessed the voting process positively.
But the report also highlights difficulties.
There were cases of voters arriving at polling stations to discover they were not on the voter list and of malfunctioning voting machines. Other areas where improvement is needed include the transparency of campaign finance, and ensuring equality of the vote, and that votes carry equal weight.
The report provides recommendations for addressing these issues.
For example, independent commissions should be established to draw voting district boundaries free from political interference. Measures should be put in place to remove undue obstacles and undue registration procedures faced by marginalized groups, to help bring an estimated 35 million citizens not registered for these elections into the process.
Further, we recommend the establishment of federal standards for voter identification to help prevent discrimination.
And while the US government invited our international observers to follow the elections, as it has committed to do as one of the 57 countries within the OSCE, observing the process in polling stations on Election Day was not possible everywhere. A number of states either lack provisions for this in their laws or prohibit it directly. The report recommends legislation to guarantee access in all states to observers invited by US authorities.
Efforts in this direction can only assist in building voter confidence — in ensuring the “consent of the governed.”
Concentrating efforts on areas where concrete shortcomings have been observed — as well as where allegations of problems such as voter fraud have been made — is the most effective way to ensure continuing confidence in the integrity of elections in the United States.
As is the case with all countries where my office observes elections, it doesn’t just make recommendations but also is ready to engage and co-operate to provide follow-up assistance on concrete steps to improve the process.
This is the value, the whole point of election observation in the first place: helping to improve electoral processes. As robust and competitive as elections in the United States may be, no election is perfect. Where there is room for improvement, making improvements makes sense.