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Greg Abbott, the Republican Attorney General of Texas, warned poll-watchers that "It may be a criminal offense for OSCE's representatives to maintain a presence within 100 feet of a polling place's entrance. Failure to comply with these requirements could subject the OSCE's representatives to criminal prosecution for violating state law."
Such a restriction makes election monitoring highly difficult.
Ambassador Janez Lenarčič, director of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights said: “The threat of criminal sanctions against OSCE/ODIHR observers is unacceptable,” Lenarčič said. “The United States, like all countries in the OSCE, has an obligation to invite observers to observe its elections.”
A release relaying Lenarčič's comments pointed out that the OSCE has observed five previous U.S. elections since 2002, all without incident.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/24/greg-abbott-texas-un-elections_n_2010081.html