General Elections, 3 November 2020
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Mission at a glance
Head of Mission: Ambassador Urszula Gacek (Poland)
Core team of eleven experts from ten participating States, based in Washington, D.C.
Mission schedule
27 September: Arrival of LEOM Core Team
28 September: LEOM office opens
4 October: LTO arrival
6 October: LTO deployment
3 November: Election day
4 November: Press conference on preliminary findings and conclusions
8 November: LTO departure
12 November: Core Team departure
Press conference
Following an invitation to observe the general elections scheduled for 3 November 2020 in the United States of America, based on the findings and conclusions of the Needs Assessment Mission deployed from 29 May to 5 June 2020, and in accordance with its mandate, ODIHR is preparing to deploy a Limited Election Observation Mission (LEOM) for these elections.
The ODIHR LEOM started activities in Washington, D.C. on 29 September 2020. The mission is led by Ambassador Urszula Gacek (Poland). It will assess whether the elections are held in line with OSCE commitments and other international obligations and standards for democratic elections, as well as with national legislation.
Components
Observers will closely follow fundamental components of the elections such as:
- The legal framework, including federal and state election legislation
- Election administration - including voter registration, voter identification, alternative voting mechanisms and measures to ensure secrecy of the vote
- Constituency delimitation - including the role of the United States Census in creating voting districts and the mechanisms for delimitation
- New voting technologies - focusing on the type of technology used in the elections, certification and evaluation of these technologies
- The campaign environment
- Campaign finance
- Coverage of these elections by the media, including online media
Election Day
While mission members will visit a limited number of polling stations on election day, observers will not conduct a systematic observation of voting, counting or tabulation of results. An interim report will be published to update the public and media during the course of the observation. The day after the elections, ODIHR’s preliminary findings and conclusions will be presented at a press conference.
A final report summing up the observation and making recommendations for improvements will be published approximately two months after the end of the election process.
Cooperation
The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly is planning to deploy an observer delegation for these elections.
Previous Elections
ODIHR has previously observed eight elections in the USA, most recently the mid-term elections in November 2018.