Dutch senator Farah Karami is one of a group of some 200 foreign observers who will be in the US to follow the presidential elections on November 5.

Karimi followed the presidential and parliamentary elections in Turkey in May last year, was in Serbia six months later and then, last week, Georgia.

“I have no idea what we can expect this year,” Karimi told broadcaster NOS in an interview. She was also in the US in 2020 and 2022.

“The last few days before an election are always very exciting,” she said. “We have been given a security briefing so we know what we can expect if there is trouble.”

The delegation is part of the OECD initiative to monitor democratic developments worldwide. Some 80 observers have been in the country since early October and Karimi is part of a second group who will monitor developments at close quarters. She will follow the counting process in swing state Michigan.

The observers have only been allowed to the count in 10 states, she said. Pennsylvania, for example, has banned them.

“We are invited by the federal government but accreditation is up to the states,” she said. “They don’t give a reason [for saying no] but our experience is roughly that Democratic states allow us in and Republican ones don’t.”

If there are problems, “we don’t interfere with what is going on,” she said. “Our job is simply to observe.”

Karimi, a senator on behalf of the GroenLinks-PvdA grouping, has been in the upper house of parliament since 2019.