Long-Term Effects
This chapter compares how several countries respond to recommendations by monitors in the long run, and whether the overall quality of elections improves throughout multiple monitored elections. Most monitoring efforts aim not simply to deter overt cheating in a single round of elections, but to bring changes in the long run. This is one reason many organizations invest considerable time on the ground. More than half of monitored elections have at least one pre-election visit by an organizational delegation, and in about 40 percent of elections at least one organization arrived a month or more in advance. Most importantly, international election monitors usually include many recommendations in their reports. These recommendations call attention to current problems in the legal and administrative framework for elections and often make concrete suggestions about how to address them.