During our 2006 federal election in Canada, a problem arose at a polling station where I was delivering instructions to our party's scrutineers (accredited representatives of candidates who monitor voting and ballot-counting). The elevator in the building where several neighbourhood polls were located broke down; the polling stations were on the third floor, and people with disabilities / old people were just going home instead of voting. Our scrutineers weren't aware of the problem (being on the third floor), the building manager was promising repairs in a half hour ... every half hour ... and the Elections Canada rep on site was incompetent. So I grabbed someone's cell phone, called my party HQ, and insisted that they get someone from Elections Canada to fix the problem pronto.
Hey, even with paper and pencil voting, things can go wrong. ;)
I was instructed to hang around the door and make sure that no one left before voting in the meantime (the polls were heavily populated by our supporters), i.e. by telling them there would shortly be an alternative to climbing the stairs, and after a while an Elections Canada woman came dashing in with the forms for people to fill out so they could transfer and vote at the one poll on the ground floor instead of on the third floor. She stuck around for quite a while to make sure this was working, and I did too, and we chatted.
She'd spent much of the day with some foreigners who were monitoring our election. Um, for educational purposes? I wondered -- Canada being such a model of efficient and transparent voting procedures and all. Nope; actually monitoring our election.
So I've finally just figured out who they were (since I neglected to ask her): they were from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe - Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.
And the OSCE will be monitoring the current US elections too --
by invitation -- much to the chagrin of right-wing haters of all things international in the US.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._presidential_election,_2004At the invitation of the United States government, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) sent a team of observers to monitor the presidential elections in 2004. It was the first time the OSCE had sent observers to a U.S. presidential election, although they had been invited in the past. In September 2004 the OSCE issued a report (link) on U.S. electoral processes and the election final report (link).
Earlier, some 13 U.S. Representatives from the Democratic Party had sent a letter to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan asking for the UN to monitor the elections. The UN responded that such a request could only come from the official national executive. The move was met by considerable opposition from Republican lawmakers. The OSCE is not affiliated with the United Nations.
http://www.osce.org/odihr-elections/item_12_17778.htmlIn response to an invitation from the Canadian Foreign Ministry, the OSCE/ODIHR deployed a team of experts to assess the 23 January general elections in Canada.
The purpose of the visit was to assess the overall election framework in Canada with regard to OSCE commitments, international standards and best practices for holding democratic elections.
From the report on the 2006 Canadian federal election:
http://www.osce.org/documents/html/pdftohtml/18710_en.pdf.htmlThe OSCE/ODIHR noted the high level of confidence, transparency and accountability throughout the electoral process.
And for the current US elections:
http://www.osce.org/odihr-elections/item_12_21838.htmlOn the invitation of the US authorities, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights has deployed an Election Assessment Mission (EAM) in relation with the 7 November mid-term Congressional Elections in the United States.
The EAM will assess the elections with regard to OSCE commitments, international standards and best practices for holding democratic elections, as well as national legislation, including the 2002 Help America Vote Act.
On the 2004 US federal election:
http://www.osce.org/odihr-elections/item_12_14335.htmlOSCE recommendations following that mission start here:
http://www.osce.org/documents/html/pdftohtml/13658_en.pdf.htmlOr see the full report here:
http://www.osce.org/documents/html/pdftohtml/13658_en.pdf.htmlhttp://www.angus-reid.com/polls/index.cfm/fuseaction/viewItem/itemID/13548- Most adults in Canada believe their democratic processes are held in a clean fashion, according to a nine-country poll by Ipsos-Public Affairs released by the Associated Press. 87 per cent of Canadian respondents are very or somewhat confident that votes in their elections are counted accurately.
France was next on the list with 85 per cent, followed by Germany with 84 per cent, South Korea with 83 per cent, Britain with 79 per cent, and Spain with 75 per cent. The lowest level of trust was registered in Mexico with 60 per cent, Italy with 65 per cent and the United States with 66 per cent.
(there is a breakdown into very confident, somewhat confident, etc.)
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