Former President Jimmy Carter took students' questions on everything from the youth vote to the Iran hostage situation on Monday, the day he was in D.C. to present his commission's findings on election reform to President Bush and Congress.
"It's hard to say, but we have problems with this greatest democracy on earth," said Carter, whose Commission on Federal Election Reform made 87 recommendations to improve the electoral process, including photo IDs for all voters, an impartial election administration and a paper trail for electronic voting machines. AU's Center for Democracy and Election Management organized the group.
Approximately 2,500 people attended the event, and a dozen students asked Carter questions. One student proposed paying people $5 to $10 to vote, while another invited Carter to submit his resume to become the next president of AU. Carter thanked the student but declined, saying he and his wife would like to stay at their home in Georgia and that he couldn't stop teaching his Sunday school class at a local church.
The former president emphasized access to the polls as crucial to voter turnout and described a Georgia law that requires paid voter IDs as "obnoxious."
Some in the audience gasped when Carter said citizens in the state have to pay $20 for a five-year voting permit and $35 to vote for 10 years. Voters can only buy the permits in a few locations, none of which are located in the state capital of Atlanta.
About one-third of Americans do not have confidence in the integrity of their vote according to polls, Carter said.
Bob Pastor, vice president of international affairs and the director of AU's Center for Democracy and Election Management, said many voters in the United States don't understand how much the country needs election reform.
"It is very difficult for many Americans to accept, but the truth is that our electoral system has deteriorated so that we rank in perhaps the bottom half of all democracies in the world in terms of the ability to conduct elections," Pastor said.
Students said it was an honor to have Carter visit the school.
"I have friends that go to Dartmouth and Cornell, but the fact that we're in Washington, even though we're not an Ivy League school - the insight we're able to gain from being here will go so much further then stuff they get at those 'prestigious schools,'" said Matt Schlesinger, a freshman in the School of Public Affairs.
Some thought that some of the questions students asked were out of line, especially one about whether the Iran hostage situation was embarrassing for Carter's administration. The former president said he was just glad the hostages made it out safely.
"I felt [the question] was very insulting," said Danitha Amarawardana, a junior in the School of Communication. "Another question had already been asked about it and then, more importantly, the way he said it - it was insulting, personally attacking Carter."
Carter said he hopes America is seen as a nation that embraces human rights and peace while avoiding pre-emptive war.
David Tise, a freshman in SPA, thought Carter's message was contradictory.
"He talked about how he championed for human rights and then flatly stated his opposition to the invasion of Iraq, which opened up human rights for that country," Tise said. "How can you be for human rights but against the war in Iraq?"
Carter left Bender Arena wearing an AU baseball cap given to him by Student Government President Kyle Taylor.
