Based on the 1990 Copenhagen Commitments, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) observes the elections of its 56 member states. For this purpose an Election Observation Mission (EOM) is on the ground to assess the various phases of an election: before, on and after Election Day. Each year, the OSCE deploys thousands of international observers who will visit approximately 12 polling stations during Election Day and produce their findings for each polling station in an observer report form. Apart from specific problems and irregularities outside and inside the polling station, observers are requested to provide an overall assessment about the voting and counting process. The paper deals with the analyses and interpretation of over 150,000 observer report forms in some 100 EOMs, from 1996 onwards. It will be demonstrated that the observers’ findings are strong indicators for the level of democracy in the OSCE-region: - The specific problems and irregularities are strongly correlated with the overall assessment; - The assessments on the voting and counting process are strongly correlated in almost all elections, apart from various elections in Belarus; - Between 1996 and 2010 the overall assessment on the voting process has stabilized, whereas the counting process has deteriorated. - The observers overall assessment of the elections varies considerably between the countries; however, there is a clear and consistent pattern within countries; - In addition, a clear regional pattern emerged: in particular elections in Eurasia and the Caucasus are assessed in negative terms.
