Carter, Baker discuss electoral reforms, politics after Baker Institute premiere of ‘Recount’

Carter, Baker discuss electoral reforms, politics after Baker Institute premiere of ‘Recount’

BY FRANZ BROTZEN
Rice News staff

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker discussed ways to reform the country’s electoral system and then engaged in good-natured political repartee about the current presidential campaign during a moderated discussion at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy May 20.

The discussion followed the premiere at the Baker Institute of the HBO movie “Recount,” an account of the aftermath of the disputed 2000 election between former Vice President Al Gore and President George W. Bush, which lasted more than a month and was finally ended by the U.S. Supreme Court.

	GEORGE WONG
	Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, right, and former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker discussed ways to reform the country’s electoral system and then engaged in good-natured political repartee about the current presidential campaign.

Carter and Baker appeared at the event to highlight their role as co-chairs of the Commission on Federal Election Reform, a panel established to study the electoral process in the U.S. and make recommendations for improvements. The commission released its report in September 2005.

“The report reflects,” Baker said, “a bipartisan consensus that can only happen when true patriots like President Carter put principle and results ahead of politics.”

The forum’s moderator, TIME Magazine national correspondent David Von Drehle, asked Carter why his Atlanta-based Carter Center, which sends observers around the world to gauge the fairness of elections, did not get involved in the 2000 U.S. presidential election. “The United States,” Carter answered, “would not qualify at all for the Carter Center to come in and monitor elections because our election laws and procedures are so abominable — still — that there’s no way to tell in a close election who actually won.”

Carter noted that the center will not send observers to an election unless several criteria are met, including a uniform method of voting throughout the country, a functioning central election commission and every candidate having equal access to the media. The United States does not guarantee any of those, he said.

Carter co-chaired an earlier commission in the immediate aftermath of the 2000 election with former President Gerald Ford. That panel issued a list of recommendations, many of which became law with the passage of the 2002 Help America Vote Act. However, the 2004 presidential election revealed new weaknesses in the system, leading to creation of the Carter/Baker commission.

To establish greater confidence in the system, Baker said, the second commission called for uniformity of voter registration and identification between states, paper trails for all voting machines, re-enfranchisement of ex-felons and the creation of four regional primaries that would rotate each election cycle. Perhaps the most interesting recommendation was the commission’s backing for photo IDs, a proposal that usually splits along partisan lines. It was the only recommendation that was not supported unanimously by the commission, Baker said, although all Republicans and a majority of Democrats on the commission did endorse it.

While he acknowledged that there is “still a degree of unfinished business,” Baker expressed satisfaction that extensive groundwork for electoral reform had been laid out, even if lawmakers have not adopted all the commission’s proposals.

After the discussion of the two commissions, Von Drehle turned the session toward the current political campaign. “It’s no secret that it’s an uphill year for us,” Baker said, citing a faltering economy and an unpopular war. “On the other hand,” he added, “I think we got the best nominee we could possibly have” in John McCain. “The odds are with the Democrats,” Carter concurred.

Baker then set out two “scenarios” for the Democrats. Either Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic frontrunner, would offer his rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton, the vice presidential spot, which, Baker suggested, she would accept, or Clinton decides she has a shot at the presidency in 2012 and declines the offer. “Which one do you think will play out, Mr. President?” Baker asked, turning to Carter. “Neither one of them,” Carter responded.

“I think it would be highly unlikely for Obama to ask her to take [the vice president’s position],” Carter said, “because I don’t see how it would help his ticket.” 

It would be a “strong ticket,” Baker countered, saying it would heal the divisions the Democrats have opened up in the lengthy nominating process. “That would be the ticket the Republicans favor, I think,” Carter laughed.