The Carter Center is stepping up its involvement in U.S. elections after decades of monitoring voting in foreign countries.
The nonprofit, founded by former President Jimmy Carter, said Thursday it agreed to an invitation by the Georgia Performance Review Board to observe the November midterm elections in Fulton County.
Although the Atlanta-based center monitored Georgia’s risk-limiting audit of the 2020 presidential election, this will be the first time in its 40-year history that it has fully observed an aspect of an American election on or around an election day.
The partnership seems natural.
Fulton County has a history of long lines, slow results and allegations of mismanagement. The Carter Center has been a pioneer of election observation, having monitored 113 elections in Africa, Latin America and Asia since 1989.
Credit: Deborah Hakes/TCC
Credit: Deborah Hakes/TCC
Fulton’s elections operations are undergoing a performance review, a step toward a potential state takeover. The performance review was sought by Republican legislators. Election officials in Fulton, a heavily Democratic county, say operations have improved since 2020.
David Carroll, director of the Carter Center’s Democracy Program, said the agreement to observe the vote came after a series of conversations with the state and Fulton County.
“They both trust that we will do a thorough, independent analysis of key election processes,” Carroll said.
Cathy Woolard, chair of the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections, said the county is fortunate to have the Carter Center in its backyard, “knowing that their work observing elections is respected around the globe.”
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
The Carter Center’s involvement falls under the performance review provisions of Georgia state law. Its observers will follow a strict, nonpartisan code of conduct to ensure their work does not complicate the election process.
The center will observe key aspects of the election, including absentee ballot issuance and processing; early voting and election-day polling places; election day operations in the elections office; and post-election procedures.
The nonprofit has been turning more of its attention to U.S. elections lately.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
In 2020, the center worked on an election security task force for Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office. When former President Donald Trump lost Georgia and demanded a recount, the center was the only nonpartisan observer for Georgia’s Risk Limiting Audit.
About 50 Carter Center monitors went into 25 counties to observe the process alongside Democrats and Republicans in the heat of the election challenge and sent back recommendations for future elections, including more training for partisan observers.
Aside from Georgia, the center’s expansion into American elections will see them in North Carolina, Florida, Arizona and Michigan working with bipartisan and non-partisan groups.
In September, the center launched the Candidate Principles for Trusted Elections initiative, a bipartisan effort to encourage candidates, political parties and voters to uphold five core doctrines of democratic elections: integrity, nonviolence, security, oversight, and the peaceful transfer of power.
Although Jimmy Carter is no longer actively involved in the center, he has voiced concerns about rising disputes over U.S. election results. On the one-year anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot, he warned in a sharply worded New York Times op-ed that the U.S. was “at genuine risk of civil conflict and losing our precious democracy.”
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