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If you are just joining us, The Associated Press has called the White House for President-elect Donald Trump. We are hearing from him elsewhere on the program. Meanwhile, there was a big election watch party here in Washington, D.C., last night, but the hundreds of people who attended were not Americans. They were election officials and experts from more than 60 countries across the globe. NPR's Frank Langfitt tells us more.
FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE: Socorro Inting came all the way from the Philippines, where she works as a national election commissioner. After visiting polling stations yesterday in Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., she said she was struck by how much faith poll workers have in voters.
SOCORRO INTING: They trust the voters because the voters can just come, say their name, no need to prove their identity. They can even register during Election Day.
LANGFITT: That's not the case in the Philippines, where among other things, corruption is a big problem.
INTING: Well, you know, vote buying is rampant in our country.
LANGFITT: President-elect Donald Trump and many Republican officials have falsely claimed election fraud is widespread in the U.S. But foreign election officials I spoke with at last night's party don't believe that, including Ernesto Ferdinand P. Maceda Jr., another commissioner from the Philippines. He says the U.S. has done a good job managing elections across such a huge land mass and large population.
ERNESTO FERDINAND P MACEDA JR: This is the top of the line. This is the benchmark. If there's any talk about irregularity, it's negligible.
LANGFITT: Election officials were attending a program organized by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, a private nonprofit. The program featured seminars on everything from voting technology to spotting deepfakes. Anthony Banbury runs the foundation which promotes democracy around the world.
ANTHONY BANBURY: What I hope is that our international guests are able to learn some of the good aspects of U.S. electoral politics and electoral administration and that they can take it home.
LANGFITT: Attendees came from all over - Kenya, Taiwan, Belarus, Honduras. Olga Aivazoska came from Ukraine, where she works for a nonprofit that defends political rights. Aivazoska looks forward to national elections in her homeland, but that's impossible right now because of the war.
OLGA AIVAZOSKA: Ukrainians believe that the good guys are fighting and defending the state on the front line. That's why they will not have any possibility to vote or to be a candidate. But without them, the elections will not be free and fair.
LANGFITT: In addition, Russian troops control a big chunk of Ukrainian territory, making it a no-go zone for voting. Most election officials at last night's party were circumspect about revealing a preference for either major candidate in the U.S. presidential race, except for an Argentinian legislator who wore a MAGA hat and posed for photos with a cardboard cutout of Trump. But a fellow Argentinian legislator, Manuel Courel, found reasons to support both candidates.
MANUEL COUREL: Our president, Milei, has very close relations with Trump.
LANGFITT: Javier Milei is Argentina's right-wing president, but Courel prefers Harris' support for international organizations over Trump's America First approach.
COUREL: From his questioning all the values that rule the world.
LANGFITT: Give me an example.
COUREL: He don't believe in the nations that share the same values, like NATO, the U.N.
LANGFITT: Courel and everyone else were watching the election closely, because, as another attendee at last night's party put it, the winner will affect the entire world.
Frank Langfitt, NPR News, Washington.
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