Tag Archives: midterm elections

US Midterm elections

Since 2002 the Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has been observing elections in the U.S. On each occasion—including the hotly debated 2020 presidential elections—it has stamped the votes as “free and fair.”

The organisation’s elections observers, however, will be conspicuous by their absence, from the mid-term elections in a few weeks’ time. For the first time the Trump Administration has refused to invite them.

The State Department’s official reason for the lack of an invitation is that the OSCE “should focus its limited resources on elections where it can have the greatest impact.”

The OSCE has responded by diplomatically expressing its disappointment. Human Rights Watch, however, has been more forthcoming. Its Director, Philippe Bolopion, said: “The US has long criticised Russian and other governments for dodging external scrutiny of their elections. Now the Trump Administration is mimicking them.”

HR Watch then went onto cite several reasons to be concerned about the fairness of the mid-term elections including the possible basing of ICE agents near polling stations; plans to base Department of Justice federal election monitors and over 1,000 polling places; repeated administration claims of non-citizens voting and voter eligibility checks.

Bolopian said: The test for November 3 will not be only on who wins, but whether everyone’s rights are respected before, during, and after the vote.” He added that without external monitors, it would be harder for the international community to establish reliably whether voters’ rights had been respected.

Since 1990, the OSCE has sent observers on 470 missions. Under the Copenhagen Document of 1990, it is tasked with observing elections in its 57-member countries. The United States joins Russia and Belarus in being the only two countries to have banned OSCE observers from its elections.

Elon Musk

It is rare in history for one man—who is not a politician—to have a massive impact on the outcome of the election in the world’s most economically and politically advanced country in the world. Trillionaire Elon Musk, however, is just such a man. He is believed to have given more than $366 million to support Republican candidates in the upcoming November mid-terms.

According to a report in the New York Times this week more than $276 million of that money has poured into groups and political action committees just since July. More than $76 million has gone into his own super PAC, which is focused on seven Senate seats in battleground states, and more than thirty House races.

The Times notes that this is just the money that law requires must be disclosed. It is believed that in both this election and in 2024 Musk made seven-figure donations to candidates through so-called “dark-money”  channels that circumvent America’s incredibly lax political donation laws by protecting donors’ identities.

The money goes primarily on advertising for, as the saying goes: “It pays to advertise.” And in America during the election cycle the airwaves, billboards and newspaper columns are dominated with political advertising. It has become an accepted political fact that the prize of elected office goes to the politician who can spend the most on ads.