*BEWARE - Words to Follow*

OK, I have gotten tons of emails and requests for information over the years from people on TWW and elsewhere about my experiences observing elections overseas. I've had a lot of fun doing this and I want to extend the opportunity to TWW community for those who may be interested/qualified.

Basically the deal is that the U.S. government seconds people to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (http://www.osce.org) to observe elections primarily in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. What does this mean for you? An all expense paid trip to a particular country for a week to three months to observe the election and report your findings. Short term observers will generally remain in country for one to three weeks whereas long term observers will stay between two and three months (in order to be an LTO you must have been and STO on three missions).

Regardless of country where you are the schedule of an STO is generally similar: Everyone will arrive in the Capital city for two nights to recieve country training, security briefings, selection for deployment regions. The following day or two you will deploy to your area of responsibility (often via LONG train rides or sketchy Aeroflot flights). You'll spend the bulk of your time in this region learning about the past and present election issues, scouting your election day route, and observing the actual election. Depending on your region and the problems (or lackthereof), you may be in for an excruciatingly long work day (my longest was 29hours although that is really not typical because we ran into serious problems and a lack of manpower to divide it up.) A few days after the election you will return to the capital to attend the generally optional official report briefing by the OSCE. You generally spend this time partying with new friends and being a tourist (in some instances you get to witness things that your friends at home learn about on CNN).

Being an election observer is technically volunteer work. That said, there are many perks. Any expense incurred is promptly reimbursed upon your return (ie: they reimbursed me for a rental car due to missed flight out of DC the night before thanksgiving). You are also provided with a per diem check before you leave which is intended to cover the cost of all of your food and hotel costs while in country. Even with the price gouging on hotels that often occurs and eating out at nice restaurants, I have never come anywhere close to spending that money. The good thing is that whatever you dont spend of your per diem is yours to keep. Additionally, in the past the flights that they purchase are full fare in case something happens and you need to leave the country before your scheduled departure (fully refundable, fully changeable). This benefit is typically used to extend your trip and visit other European countries (while you cannot go through the govt contractor to do this, you can call the airline directly without problem: Ive extended trips on multiple occassions doing this.)

Since the OSCE is an international organization, you will be working with people from other countries. Each election team is made up of four people: You, Another observer from another country, a driver, and an interpreter. I have made very good friends throughout Europe through these elections whom I am constantly in touch with. The other Americans on these missions are typically great connections to make if you are interested in a future in Politics, Government, Intl Relations/Affairs/Business, or defense contracts.

My Reason for posting this now is because they are currently recruiting STOs for the upcoming parliamentary election in Ukraine. I was offered an LTO position a few weeks ago but turned it down because i cant get away from school for two months right now. I am trying to get an STO slot and would love to have a fellow wolfpacker or two along for the ride (to counterbalance the UNC prof that was on a previous mission with me ). I can personally recommend the Ukraine mission as I went twice during the Orange Revolution in 2004. It is a great place to visit and the work that you will be doing is shaping up to be pretty exciting (the election has been getting a lot of international press over the past few months).

HOW TO APPLY:

Go to https://www.pae-react.com/default.asp

There you can read all of the official info about observing elections for the OSCE.
Fill out the application and put in the Ukraine STO code posted on the job page.
Wait for them to email/call with an offer.
Profit.

If you are interested in Ukraine you should probably apply in the next day or so as they tend to make selections pretty quickly. There are also other election opportunities in the not so distant future although they are not currently listed on the website (Russia for instance).

8/28/2007 10:05:55 AM

Can non Citizens apply?

8/28/2007 10:08:36 AM

Oh yeah, I forgot to add that: In order to get selected as part of the US delegation, you must be a US citizen. If your country is participating in the particular OSCE election mission you can go through them to get selected. However each country recruits people differently so I cant give any specifics.

8/28/2007 10:12:36 AM

this is seriously one of the coolest things I've ever read on tdub.

8/28/2007 12:15:41 PM

I would kill to do this.

8/28/2007 6:51:03 PM

What do they look for in the application process; what would make someone a good candidate??

8/28/2007 6:58:56 PM

awesome. i'm applying, but:

Preferred Position:
REACT
Any vacancy in my field of expertise
Elections monitoring/supervision

which do i choose? also, where do i find the vacancy number? do i enter you in the referral field?

8/28/2007 7:07:31 PM

^^I have that same question

8/28/2007 7:22:27 PM

BigBlueRam - It wouldnt hurt to select all three but REACT and Election Monitoring/supervision would be the most important two.

^ and ^^^ - I would assume that the requirements are the same as when i applied a few years ago. At that time they had three primary requirements that candidates were encourages to satisfy one of. They were: 1. Election/Campaign Experience (foreign or domestic), 2. Relevant Study (intl relations/business/studies, polisci, diplomacy, etc), 3. regional experience. I would say that if you dont meet any of these requirements that you apply anyway.

Another question that has come up is about the USIP modules that you have to complete before getting a final offer. They pretty much constitute your stateside training about OSCE and the regions where they work. In my opinion they are a piece of cake and merely a formality. If you have extensive knowledge of OSCE and/or Eastern Europe and Central Asia then you may be able to complete the test straight away. Otherwise its just a little bit of reading the online document before taking the test. Either way, it takes very little time to complete. If you feel like your resume or background arent as strong as others, you should go ahead and complete ALL of the modules to show that you are genuinely interested. Im not certain that it will make a difference but i cant hurt.

8/28/2007 9:45:13 PM

http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/8/5492DF3F-FFA3-4D59-8C28-FB1959B8DEB3.html

This article gives a very thorough overview of the role of OSCE in Elections and the role of Short Term observers specifically. The article is about the recent election in Kazakhstan but the job is pretty much the same regardless of country. The differences lie in how well the elections are run and how much the host government cooperates with you.

8/29/2007 11:17:29 AM

Quote :

"this is seriously one of the coolest things I've ever read on tdub."

i would like to do this but i'm in school and taking a semster off now would fuck me up and push my grad date back to next year.

8/29/2007 11:23:28 AM

You don't have to take a semester off to be a Short Term Observer. STOs for ukraine will leave Sept. 25 and be back home on Oct. 3. Its a pretty short mission.

8/29/2007 11:57:09 AM

I could be interested in taking vacation from work to do this.

8/29/2007 12:01:52 PM

For those of you still interested in Election Observation there are a few opportunities coming up that you may want to keep an eye on:

Kyrgyzstan Parliamentary Elections: 12/16/2007

Uzbekistan Presidential Election: 12/23/2007

Georgia Presidential Election: 1/5/2008

Now I realize that these countries arent on most people's list of desired destinations but each should be pretty interesting for those that are adventurous. For the Uzbek election, you will be away from home for christmas, likely coming home christmas day or one or two days following. The Georgian elections should be the most exciting and most likely to make international headlines because of the widespread demonstrations and state of emergency called a few weeks ago.

The OSCE has withdrawn from the Russian Parliamentary Elections due to the government severely limiting the number of foreign observers allowed in (roughly 50-70 allowed in to observe a country of russia's size) and then delaying/refusing to grant said people their visas.

11/20/2007 12:52:14 PM

I'm moving to Belize eventually



but thats about as far as I'm gonna go

11/20/2007 12:57:33 PM

Quote :

"because of the widespread demonstrations and state of emergency called a few weeks ago."

so in other words I may be shot at.

Does the US have any outside observers monitoring our elections??
If not maybe they should have been around in 2000 in Florida

11/20/2007 12:58:25 PM

I mean, i guess that there is always the possibility that you could be shot at, but it is very unlikely to happen in Georgia. The state of emergency and demonstrations resulted in only a moderate amount of violence and none to internationals that ive heard about.

The OSCE actually did observe the last presidential election in the US, but it was a pretty small operation compared to some others (which is one reason why Russia is playing hardball now).

11/20/2007 1:02:28 PM

awesome man, thanks for the info... i'm going to apply for Uzbekistan if they have short term

11/21/2007 12:37:18 PM

Uzbekistan would be a pretty interesting election to go observe. I may even toss my hat in the ring for it if they request STOs. It will likely be a fairly small team going but given the location and the fact that it is over Christmas, it may be a bit easier to get picked up for. I have friends who have worked there and they enjoyed it.

It appears that the U.S. is likely to send around 25 short term observers to the Kyrgyz election, so if you are interested, keep an eye on the PAE website. They tend to move pretty quickly once they solicit interested persons. It may not be your number one travel destination, but when else will you get an opportunity for an all expense paid trip there to do cool work?

[Edited on November 22, 2007 at 9:09 AM. Reason : 0]

11/22/2007 9:07:53 AM

^ the website doesn't say if there are short term posts? do they usually wait this long before releasing this info?

11/22/2007 3:07:01 PM

How much notice they give really depends on the OSCE. Since there is a lot of diplomacy and political dealings involved with getting these missions up and running, there is no hard and fast timeline for requesting observers. From looking at the OSCE website, in previous Uzbek elections there has only been a limited mission probably meaning no or few Short term observers.

*PAE is now soliciting applications for Short Term Observers for the Kyrgyz election. As I said previously, the US is likely to send around 25 observers, so if you are interested, get your application in today (monday at the latest).

*Today the OSCE published a request for applications for Core Team positions for the Georgian elections. The Core Team are the mangerial staff for each election mission and they are the ones who compile all of the information collected and publish the official reports of the mission. I would imagine that they pay is very good and your expenses while on the mission should be virtually none. These positions are directly with the OSCE and not through a US contractor like the LTO and STO positions. The job is approximately 5 - 7 weeks and will likely begin in early dec. They are recruiting for:

-Head of Mission
-Deputy Head of Mission
-Election Analyst
-Political Analyst
-Legal Analyst
-Media Analyst
-Co-ordinator of Long-Term Observers
-Statistics Analyst
-Gender Analyst
-Logistics Expert
-Security Expert

detailed requirements and more information can be found here: http://www.osce.org/odihr-elections/28181.html

11/23/2007 10:42:12 AM

is there health insurance?

12/8/2007 10:07:29 AM

yes, they provide insurance coverage for the duration of your trip. From the day you leave your house until the day you return

12/8/2007 1:45:47 PM

This is fantastic. Since I am graduating next week and have no job lined up, I'm gonna have to keep an eye on this in the meantime because it sounds like a great opportunity.

12/8/2007 6:00:29 PM

^get a real job, stop putting off your entrance into the "real world"

12/8/2007 6:10:15 PM

Thanks but I've had a real job, and I would like to put off going back to the real world for as long as possible. Let's see I could sit here on my ass waiting to get interviews and callbacks from jobs I've applied for, or I could go to Georgia. TOUGH CALL.

12/8/2007 6:14:21 PM

FYI for those who are still interested:

PAE has posted an announcement number for those interested in becoming a Short Term Observer to Georgia. The election takes place on the 5th of January so they will likely be making their selections in a day or two.

They also posted information about upcoming elections in Serbia (1/20, Presidential) and Armenia (2/19, Presidential). They will likely be posting announcements for STOs in the coming weeks.

12/20/2007 1:26:40 PM

whats the duration for STOs to Georgia?

12/20/2007 11:42:14 PM

The dates for Georgia are 12/30 -1/7. It looks like the STOs will be celebrating the New Year in Tbilisi.

12/21/2007 11:03:11 AM