We don’t need no stinking monitors.
An international organization observing the U.S. midterm elections decided on Monday to pull its two Montana-based election monitors from the state after one of them pleaded guilty to drunken driving.
Ognjen Domuz, a 30-year-old citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina, pleaded guilty Monday to driving under the influence after he was stopped early Saturday morning in Helena. He was fined $785 and ordered to be evaluated for chemical dependency, Helena municipal court officials said. Specific details on his blood-alcohol level were not immediately available. The legal limit in Montana is .08.
Domuz is one of 36 observers with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe dispersed across the U.S. to monitor and report on campaign activities, media coverage, voter registration and Election Day procedures for the midterm elections.
Thomas Rymer, a spokesman for the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, said all OSCE observers must follow a strict code of conduct that requires them to obey the laws of the country being observed and to comport themselves in a respectful and professional manner.
“This is unacceptable,” Rymer said of the charge against Domuz. “We are currently making arrangements to withdraw the observer from the field and immediately send him home.”
The OSCE observers work in two-person teams, and the second member of Domuz’s team also will depart Montana to work with the OSCE team in Washington, D.C., Rymer said.