Politics- The Organization of American States sent 28 international election observers to witness the 2020 US general election.
- The election observers said they witnessed no instances of fraud or voting irregularities.
- That conclusion contradicts claims from President
Donald Trump and his allies, who have pushed baseless allegations of widespread election fraud and have launched more than a dozen legal challenges while Trump has refused to concede. - The OAS statement followed another report from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which said that the US election was "well managed" and that Trump's baseless claims "harm public trust in democratic institutions."
An international group that was invited to observe the 2020 US general election has said it saw no instances of voter fraud, contrary to what President Donald Trump and his allies have been claiming without evidence.
In a preliminary statement, the Organization of American States said it sent a team of 28 international election observers from 13 countries to the US to watch the vote happen in Georgia, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, and Washington, DC.
The COVID-19 pandemic prevented a larger group from being sent, the group said in the statement, published Friday.
In the statement, the OAS said the experts witnessed no instances of voter fraud or irregularities and said Election Day was mostly peaceful, despite some efforts to intimidate poll workers as the votes were being counted.
The OAS said Trump had "accused electoral workers of electoral fraud, and reiterated that his campaign would pursue its complaints through the courts."
"The OAS observers deployed in the battleground states of Michigan and Georgia did not witness any of the aforementioned irregularities," it said.
The group added that it "has not directly observed any serious irregularities that call into question the results so far."
The OAS experts also seemed to criticize the Trump campaign's efforts to contest the results in several swing states.
While the group said that it supported "the right of all contesting parties in an election, to seek redress before the competent legal authorities when they believe they have been wronged," it said it was "critical however, that candidates act responsibly in presenting and arguing legitimate claims before the courts, not unsubstantiated or harmful speculation in the public media."
The OAS report came shortly after another international group published its findings on the US election.
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which has been observing US elections since 2002, found the 2020 general election to be "competitive and well managed" despite the logistical issues presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The OSCE also rebuked Trump for spreading "baseless" allegations of electoral fraud, which the group described as "unprecedented attempts to undermine public trust" that were eroding faith in the US democracy.
Trump and his Republican allies have claimed without evidence that widespread fraud had taken place in the
On Monday, the Justice Department's top election-crimes official resigned after Attorney General William Barr authorized investigations into election fraud — an action that contradicted long-standing departmental guidelines to prevent interfering with elections.
According to The New York Times, some lawyers at firms representing the Trump campaign are worried their work is not based on evidence and may undermine US democracy.