Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights

ODIHR has deployed an election assessment mission for the mid-term congressional elections to be held in the United States on 2 November 2010.

The deployment of the mission follows an invitation to ODIHR from the ambassador of the United States to the OSCE, and is based on the recommendation of an ODIHR needs assessment mission that was carried out on 23-27 May 2010.

The mission, led by Miklos Haraszti (Hungary), includes 12 experts from 12 OSCE participating States. The mission will be based in Washington, DC, but will deploy experts to other areas of the United States.

The experts will assess and report on the overall framework for the conduct of the elections. They will focus on the election administration, including issues of voter registration and identification, campaign finance regulations, voting rights, voting systems, and the media.

As part of the assessment process, the experts will meet with relevant governmental authorities, the election administration, candidates, political parties, the judiciary, civil society, and the media.

ODIHR will not carry out systematic or comprehensive observation of the voting, counting, or tabulation on election day, but the experts plan to visit a limited number of polling stations across the country to follow election day procedures.

A final report will be issued about two months after the completion of the election process. ODIHR has been following elections in the United States since 2002, most recently the 2008 presidential election.