Politics Talk

Do international election observers actually matter?

I was an election observer once, a long time ago, in a neighbouring country. We were 40 people for thousands of polling stations. We saw maybe 2% of them.

So I ask honestly: what is the value? My answer after that experience: observers do not catch most fraud, but they raise the cost of the most obvious fraud, and their reports give local groups something to point to. The local observers, who are many more, are the real work.

Other opinions welcome.