Minding the Polls

Abstract

Eric Bjornlund opens his study of international and domestic elec- tion monitoring with a brief assessment of the 2000 U.S. presidential election. Applying international norms for democratic elections, he finds that international election observers, had they been present, would have concluded that the election in Florida—and possibly in other states as well—was fundamentally flawed. As a consequence of the 2000 elec- tion fiasco in Florida, various organizations interested in the democratic process and the upholding of electoral standards invited some foreign politicians, electoral experts, and others to observe the 2004 presiden- tial election. The lack of coordination among these observer groups, as well as their distinct agendas and methodologies, would have provided Bjornlund with good illustrations of some of the issues he raises in the book; unfortunately, Beyond Free and Fair was already in bookstores when the 2004 vote took place. Drawing on worldwide experience since the mid-1980s, the book in- cludes case studies and examples from countries across the globe. At the outset, Bjornlund provides his own definition of international election observation, highlighting all of its core elements: International elec- tion observation is the purposeful gathering of information about an electoral process and public assessment of that process against universal standards for democratic elections by responsible foreign or interna- tional organizations committed to neutrality and to the democratic