by Eric Bjornlund

About the author: Eric Bjornlund is a former senior associate of Asia programs at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs.

Hardly an election occurs outside the developed world today without an international corps of observers flying in to certify the results. But the outsiders sometimes do more harm than good.

Friends and foes of the United States smirked in fall 2000 as the champion of the free world waded in embarrassment through Florida’s electoral swamps. Even as U.S. government agencies and nonprofit groups were busily monitoring “troubled” elections in half a dozen foreign lands, from Haiti to Azerbaijan, America’s presidential election was thrown into doubt by arthritic voting technology, sloppy voter registration, and partisan election officials—flaws that were supposed to...