International Observers’ Report on the 2024 General Election in America

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Europe sends election observers to America, as per reciprocal agreements between the United States and foreign States. The 2024 General Election across America “demonstrated the resilience of the country’s democratic institutions,” followed “a well-run process” and proceeded in a generally “peaceful and orderly atmosphere,” the OECD’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights said in its initial report released the day after. But the vote “was marked by disinformation and instances of violence, including harsh and intolerant language against women and immigrants by one candidate,” the delegation warned, while “claims by Mr. Trump of widespread electoral fraud in the 2020 elections, dismissed by state and federal courts, have eroded public trust in democratic processes.” The OECD’s International Election Observer Mission observers went on to observe “incidents of election violence, including . . . threats of violence or aggressive behavior targeting voters, including minorities, election administrators, officials, campaigners, and media representatives.” The leader of the mission, a historian, noted a decline in civility and return to the harsh and violent politics typical before the early Twentieth Century. The harsher, more violent and more personal rhetoric not only polarizes society extremely, but “that polarization is something which makes ordinary governing very difficult in most countries if it happens," he said. I note how this polarization, which is exacerbated by campaign marketing messages that foster fear and anger about the other side to justify support for their candidates and to increase turnout of their own base of voters, instead of trying to persuade voters to their side through reason. This polarization makes voters vulnerable to the populism, demagoguery and foreign interference in the form of disinformation that I have noted have been influencing recent elections in America.