The Trump administration has refused to invite international observers to monitor the 2026 US midterm elections. It is the first time in more than two decades the United States has done so.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has observed every US federal election since 2002. Its Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights sends teams to polling stations and publishes reports on how elections are run.

Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, condemned the move on Oct. 6. She called it “deeply antithetical to the spirit of freedom, democracy and transparency.” She urged the administration to let independent observers do their work.

Human Rights Watch also criticised the decision. It said the move “fuels fears of serious human rights concerns” around the elections and copies behaviour the US has condemned in other countries.

The administration has previously threatened to pull out of the OSCE unless it reforms. The Justice Department plans to send its own monitors to the midterms, a move critics view with scepticism.

The decision lands less than a month before the midterms, which will decide control of Congress.