For a Short Term Observer (STO) polling day is the whole point. For OSCE/ODIHR it is one component of the electoral cycle.
My first Election Observation Mission (EOM) was to Moldova in February. It took until 22nd May for OSCE/ODIHR to publish their Final Report; as you might expect a bit of a curate’s egg. Gratifyingly it appends a list of all the STOs. You can glance at it here – I doubt you will want to plough through the whole thing.
I was in Ukraine in March and April for two rounds of the presidential election. The politically inexperienced candidate, Volodymyr Zelensky, won by a country mile. He took office on 20th May and immediately called for a snap parliamentary election in July. On 22nd May President Trump invited President Zelensky to the White House.
No sooner had Wizz Air wafted us back to Stansted than STOs were selected to go to North Macedonia. I did not apply. This month there is a presidential election in Kazakhstan but I was not selected. Now STOs are being chosen to go back to Ukraine for their parliamentary election but the dates clash with previous commitments. The last two missions each lasted nine days. These are just the elections that the NGO I work for are asked to send observers by the FCO. Another UK NGO is sending observers to Albania where local elections are being held at the end of this month.
Will this electoral cycle go on for ever? I hope not. As countries transition to being mature democracies there will be no need for STOs. There probably won’t be any polling stations as electronic voting will become the norm before long. The next election that I can apply for is in Uzbekistan, a country I have not been to, in December.