8/21/2020, 6:12:01 p.m.

Jimmy Carter’s nonprofit to set up U.S. voting initiative to address ‘eroding’ democracy

The Carter Center’s global Democracy Program, which sends election monitors to nations to ensure voting is fair, is reportedly setting up a U.S.-based voting program ahead of the November elections.

It is an unprecedented step for the nonprofit, founded by former president Jimmy Carter, to involve itself in U.S. elections, underscoring fears about efforts to undermine the results of the upcoming presidential election.

David Carroll, director of the Democracy Program, told the Independent news outlet, which first reported the initiative, that it has worked in countries where there is “a significant potential for an important change in the quality of democracy” or where democracy is “under severe threat.”

“Until the last 10 years, we wouldn’t have thought of the U.S. in that category,” Carroll said. “But it’s been increasingly the view of the Carter Center that the state of democracy in the U.S. has been eroding.”

The Carter Center did not immediately respond to request for comment. It appears the center is not proposing sending election observers throughout the country, instead considering a more educational role by raising awareness and correcting misinformation about voting.

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