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Jimmy Carter has led election monitoring efforts all around the world, including Sudan in 2010 — but never in the United States until now.
Carter Center details its first oversight of an American election
CLARIFICATION: The headline and story were updated Oct. 18 to more accurately reflect the group's plans.
The Carter Center, which Jimmy Carter started after his presidency in part to assure fair elections in the developing world, is making explicit its plan for watchdogging an American contest for the first time.
The organization has unveiled one video explaining the basics of voting rights and balloting logistics, and another video encouraging patience if the presidential result is not known soon after the voting stops in 19 days because millions of mailed ballots will still need to be counted. It's working to help states and counties nationwide improve voter education and election transparency. And it's finalizing arrangements for "targeted observation efforts" mainly in Georgia, where the center is headquartered and which has a history of voter suppression and controversy over results tabulation.
The details underscore the degree of concern by human rights organizations about the adequacy of months of preparation for a safe and comprehensive Election Day that yields trustworthy results.
<p>The Carter Center has monitored 111 elections in 39 countries since the 1980s and decided after the party conventions in August that the presidential contest merited something similar, citing a "backsliding" of American democracy that started a decade ago and has accelerated during the Trump administration.</p><p><p style="text-align: center;" id="sufn"><a style="font-weight: bold;margin:40px auto;font-size:2rem" href="https://thefulcrum.us/st/newsletters">Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter </a></p></p><p>"We've focused on places where democracy is either poised to take a step forward or in danger of taking a step backward," the head of the nonprofit's democracy program, David Carroll, wrote last week in sketching some of the coming efforts on the center's website. He said the nations where election observers have gone before almost all have domestic stresses similar to those in the United States now: "Countries characterized by political polarization, ethnic or racial divisions and fears that election results won't be accepted or seen as credible."</p><p>Since the center made the decision only six weeks ago, it decided it would be too ambitious to deploy volunteer observers at polling places — in part because that would require getting permission from as many as 10,000 election administering jurisdictions, many of which would likely resist on the grounds that the monitors would have partisan bias because the former president is a Democrat.</p><p><div class="x12"><div class="htlad-Desktop_Content_Banner"></div></div></p><p>President Trump, who is trailing in the polls to former Vice President Joe Biden, has repeatedly questioned the integrity of the election and refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he's defeated — mainly by alleging, without evidence, that an unprecedented use of absentee ballots in response to the coronavirus pandemic will assure widespread fraud. </p><p>Carter co-chaired a bipartisan commission that in 2005 described mail-in ballots as the easiest way to commit election fraud. But in May he announced <a href="https://thefulcrum.us/voting/jimmy-carter-vote-by-mail" target="_self">he had changed his mind</a> because the steady expansion in remote voting, and improved ballot security, had proved the process almost immune to cheating. </p><p>The former president reiterated that view last month after both Attorney General William Barr and the White House cited the 15-year-old report in efforts to discredit the practice. "I approve the use of absentee ballots and have been using them for more than five years," Carter said. </p><p><div class="x12"><div class="htlad-Desktop_Content_Banner"></div></div></p><p>Part of the Carter Center's work this fall has been collaborating with the <a href="https://thefulcrum.us/vote-at-home" target="_self">National Vote at Home Instituted</a> on a report on how local election officials can make the absentee ballot process more transparent — and with the National Conference of State Legislatures on a report explaining election observer rules in all 50 states.</p><p>The other nations where Carter elections teams are working this fall are Côte d'Ivoire, Myanmar and Bolivia.</p><p>Carter turned 96 two weeks ago and is the oldest person ever to have been president. He was defeated by Ronald Reagan after a single term in 1980 and he and his wife, Rosalynn, started the humanitarian, peacekeeping and global democracy promotion organization two years later.</p>
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Voting
True
In 1963, 85 percent of eligible voters cast ballots in the city elections for Cohoes, N.Y. Last year, turnout for the city's municipal election was just 24 percent.
Lessons from a local election 57 years ago for boosting turnout now
Van Buskirk is an engineer and urban planner who has been active in politics since the 1960s. This summer he self-published "Big Mike, Uncle Dan and Me: How I Beat 20th Century New York State's Most Corrupt Political Machine."
<p>In Cohoes, the suburb of Albany, N.Y., where I grew up, 85 percent of eligible voters cast ballots in the city elections of 1963. Last year, turnout for the municipal election was just 24 percent. What was the key factor that caused this phenomenon?</p><p>The Census Bureau pegged turnout for the 2016 presidential election at 61.4 percent. In Belgium, one of the handful of developed nations where voting is compulsory, 88 percent participated in last year's national election — so perhaps that's a reasonable upper limit to expect across the United States.</p><p>But turnout in our local elections is abysmally low. Research by Jan Brennan of the National Civic League found the highest recent participation in a mayoral election was 47 percent in Bradenton, Fla. — and the lowest was 6 percent. She recommended local contests always be on even-numbered years to coincide with federal and most state contests. </p><p><p style="text-align: center;" id="sufn"><a style="font-weight: bold;margin:40px auto;font-size:2rem" href="https://thefulcrum.us/st/newsletters">Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter </a></p></p><p>Many local candidates complain their races would then be overshadowed and they could not get their messages out. Other research concludes that many local elections lack competition, which results in low turnout. And Eric Oliver, an expert on local politics at the University of Chicago, says getting people to the polls for city contests is not necessarily best if they are not informed.</p><p>One way to address low turnout is to increase the number of potential voters. And one way to do that is by allowing eligible voters with valid ID to register and vote on the same day. Research suggests the 21 states with same-day registration have consistently higher turnout.</p><p>Modest increases in turnout are also reported by the five states that, even before the pandemic, had started sending return-by-mail ballots to everyone eligible for each election. And the same goes for the 16 states that automatically register residents to vote (unless they ask to opt out) whenever they do business with the motor vehicle bureau or some other state agency that keeps identifying records on people.</p><p><div class="x12"><div class="htlad-Desktop_Content_Banner"></div></div></p><p>Many critics claim that the easier it is to vote, the easier it is to commit voter fraud. One Gallup poll found 59 percent of people have no confidence in the honesty of our elections. At the same time, a Pew Research Center poll after the 2018 midterm found 76 percent support for requiring an ID at the polls — which many in the political establishment oppose because it discourages minority voters.</p><p>Judicial Watch, a conservative foundation, recently reported on a county clerk in Michigan altering 193 absentee ballots. Los Angeles County had 1.6 million inactive voters on its rolls two years ago. And a close Democratic primary in June for a New York City congressional seat took weeks to decide after the mail-in system was beset with problems, from the Postal Service to the Board of Elections, with over 65,000 absentee ballots eventually disqualified.</p><p><div class="x12"><div class="htlad-Desktop_Content_Banner"></div></div></p><p>In synthesizing the research there is general agreement on the following: Voter rolls need to be accurate. They need to be regularly updated to create confidence in the election process. Local elections need to be more competitive and voters need better information on local issues. And everyone who is legally registered should be encouraged to vote.</p><p>Now, back to my hometown. </p><p>Six decades ago, its 20,000 people included almost 13,000 eligible voters. They had to be at least 21 to vote in those days and they had to pass a literacy test. They had four days in October to register to vote in the November general election.</p><p>An entrenched and corrupt political machine controlled the city government and school board, so there was limited political competition. Apathy resulted in such slogans as "My vote won't count."</p><p>I was part of the group of citizens that organized to challenge the machine at the polls. This Citizens Party solicited candidates, raised money and built a get-out-the-vote organization. And its leadership designed and implemented this strategy to optimize turnout:</p><p>First, people in all 23 precincts were assigned to assemble a file with the name, address, phone number, party affiliation and voting record of every eligible voter. City directories, telephone books, motor vehicle registrations and canvassing helped create the databases.</p><p>Next, people were identified for registration during the four-day window, using personal contact to provide would-be voters information on the issues. One targeted group was the 1,500 who had recently voted in presidential and gubernatorial contests — but not local ones. By the end of the drive, 87 percent of eligible voters were on the rolls, a record.</p><p>Then, an information campaign began. The new party got its message out by having a four-page flier, outlying the party in power's corruption, delivered to every household in the city. Other activities were rallies, canvassing of every household, a parade and letters targeting various issues for various groups.</p><p>Finally, the party arranged for 21 deputy state attorneys general to be at polling places on Election Day to ensure the integrity of the vote and challenge ineligible voters.</p><p>Thanks to all that, a record 18 of every 20 eligible voters cast a ballot — and the Cohoes Citizens Party won by 1,462 votes.</p><p>By 2019, apathy had returned with 24 percent turnout for a noncompetitive mayoral election.</p><p>Voter turnout correlates with politically competitive elections, a key factor. The more competitive the higher the correlation.</p>
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How to make sure your vote counts
Organizer: The Fulcrum
With legal fights over the election being waged across the country and disinformation clouding the truth about voting systems, Americans can be forgiven for their confusion about how to cast a ballot this fall. Because each state sets its own rules — for registering, getting and returning vote-by-mail ballots, timetables for balloting in person and so many other things — keeping it all straight can be difficult for both voting rights advocates and individual voters.
The Fulcrum invites you to a live discussion in which we will discuss the realities of voting during the coronavirus pandemic, answering your questions about how individual states are handling voting procedures and where voting has become easier. And we will walk you through resources that you can share with friends and family.
Location: Webinar
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Are you ready to vote?
Election Day is coming. There's no time like the present to make sure you're all set to participate.
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