🗳️ For the first time since 2002, the Donald Trump administration did not invite the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to observe the federal midterm elections. The State Department justified the decision by stating that it wanted to focus resources on elections with greater impact.

⚠️ The director of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), Maria Telalian, lamented the move and noted that election observation “is not a judgment on a country,” but rather an independent assessment of the process. The president of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, Pere Joan Pons, described it as a significant departure from established democratic practice.

🇺🇸 Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen called on the Trump administration to ensure that the United States “holds itself to the same standards we would demand of any other democracy.”