The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has observed every U.S. federal election since 2002. With the midterms set for November 3, 2026, its election-monitoring arm says the invitation has not come.
“The Office sends a needs assessment mission upon receiving an invitation from the OSCE participating State where the elections are occurring,” a spokesperson for the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights told Democracy Docket on September 16. “We are currently waiting on that invitation from the United States.”
The obligation is reciprocal and mutual. It comes from the 1990 OSCE Copenhagen Document, signed by 57 participating states, under which each invites observers from the others. Missions to the United States have varied in size, and many since 2014 have been limited observation missions rather than full ones, but they have always happened. ODIHR's process begins with a needs assessment that it sends only once an invitation arrives, and in past cycles that assessment was published far earlier than this.
This is an absence, not an announced decision. No U.S. official has said the country will not invite observers. The State Department, which handles OSCE engagement, did not respond to Democracy Docket's request for comment, so the administration's position is unstated rather than denied. An invitation could still issue, though a very late one would leave little time for credible observation.
The absence was visible before it was reported. A July 21, 2026 commentary carried by The Fulcrum and IVN noted from ODIHR's own public calendar that the November 3 midterms were listed with “no needs assessment or any other recorded activity,” when the pre-election assessment should already have occurred. That piece was careful about what it proved: “This isn't proof Washington declined to invite ODIHR, but it breaks with recent cycles, arriving as the administration steps back from other multilateral engagement.”
Context from the same reporting: in December a senior State Department official warned the United States could leave the OSCE unless it made what he called serious reforms, including slashing its budget, stopping “dictating national social policy,” and increasing engagement with Russia.
Eric Bjornlund, president of Democracy International, said the absence “seems to be just another data point in this mess where the executive branch of our national government seems to be trying to sow confusion about whether elections are going to be well-run and credible, or not.” Duke public policy professor Judith Kelley was less surprised: “Given the current administration's stance towards international organizations, it would be more surprising if such an invitation had been issued, especially given the topic of elections.”
Update (October 6, 2026): The absence is now an acknowledged decision. On September 23 the OSCE's election office and Parliamentary Assembly said, “The decision not to invite the OSCE to observe the 2026 mid-term congressional elections in the United States is regrettable,” and that it is “not in line with the commitments” in the 1990 Copenhagen Document. Asked why, a State Department spokesperson told MS NOW that the OSCE “should focus its limited resources on elections where it can have the greatest impact.” The OSCE has observed every U.S. federal election since 2002. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said the decision “risks undermining public trust in America's safe and secure election system.”
Update (October 13, 2026): a White House official told Snopes that “American elections will be administered, participated in, and observed by American citizens.” The White House did not deny declining to invite the observers and gave no other explanation, Snopes reported.