Foreign election observers to cast their eyes on the U.S. presidential vote
By Carol Morello October 5 at 4:43 PM
The world will be watching from close-up when the United States chooses a president next month, as foreign election observers fan out to polling places across the country.
For the first time, the Organization of American States (OAS) will dispatch 30 to 40 observers and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which has been sending small groups of observers to U.S. elections since 2002, hopes to boost its contingent dramatically, fielding hundreds of poll watchers.
Even Russia, where 63 U.S. observers traveled for parliamentary elections last month, is considering sending people to watch Americans vote, according to Yury Melnik, a spokesman for the Russian Embassy in Washington.
The plethora of poll watchers — some of whom are veteran monitors of elections in countries where voter fraud is rampant — is another sign that the 2016 contest is unlike any other. Usually, the United States sends observers to countries where the vote is in some manner suspect. This year, America is on the receiving end of the scrutiny.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/foreign-election-observers-to-cast-their-eyes-on-the-us-presidential-vote/2016/10/05/2fb0646e-8666-11e6-ac72-a29979381495_story.html?wpisrc=nl_evening&wpmm=1
