Stories from 100 Elections
Conversations at The Carter Center
Dec. 2, 2015
In 2015, The Carter Center conducted its 100th election observation mission. Over the years, our staff have watched jubilant voters cast their first ballots; met with dictators who were sure they would be re-elected, but lost; and watched election officials stay up all night counting ballots. Hear humor...
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News & Updates
Advancing the Human Rights and Election Standards Initiative
There is an emerging consensus within the international election observation and assistance community that elections should be assessed based on standards grounded in international human rights laws. This broad consensus is due in part to The Carter Center’s leadership on the Democratic Election Standards project, through which the Center is collaborating with peer organizati...
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Welcome to Visiting Scholar Dr. Markku Suksi!
Emory University’s Institute for Developing Nations and The Carter Center’s Democratic Election Standards Project welcome visiting scholar Dr. Markku Suksi, Professor of Public Law S.J.D, D. Pol. Sc., Department of Law at Åbo Akademi University, Finland.
Professor Suksi will be spending six weeks at Emory and will work on research that relates to international electi...
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How Do We Know a Good Election When We See One?
Over the last decade, practitioners working on election assistance and observation have made important strides in defining common principles to guide their work, developing more systematic methodologies, and expanding their work to focus increasingly on broader democratization processes. Consensus has emerged that standards for elections should be based on state oblig...
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Legislative and Presidential Elections in Tunisia
The Carter Center established a presence in Tunisia in 2011 and observed both the 2011 National Constituent Assembly elections and the constitution-making process that culminated in the adoption of the constitution in January 2014. The Center’s activities shifted in June 2014 with the formal launch of an election observation mission for the 2014 presidential and legislative el...
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Carter Center Launches Project on the Benefits of Evidence-Based Observation of U.S. Elections
As The Carter Center marks 10 years as an original endorser of the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation, its Democracy Program has launched a new project aimed at supporting those working to improve the quality of elections in the United States.
The Center and partner organizations will raise awareness of the important contributions that objective, ...
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Human Rights and Election Standards
The Carter Center believes greater and more sustained interaction between the election assistance community and intergovernmental human rights systems is needed to promote electoral reform initiatives, strengthen democratic elections and governance, and foster the evolution of relevant international law on elections.
To this end, the Center plans to convene a series of confere...
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100 Elections Observed
In May 2015, observer teams deployed to Guyana, on the northeast coast of South America, for what would be The Carter Center's 100th observed election. Read the Center's statements and reports on Guyana's elections here.
Twenty-six years earlier, in May 1989, The Carter Center sent its first-ever team of election observers to Panama, where their work exposed General Manuel N...
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Human Rights and Election Standards
The election assistance community and intergovernmental
human rights systems working together to promote reform Learn more
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10 Years of Advancing Democratic Election Standards and Human Rights
A pioneer in the field of election observation, The Carter Center has observed 100 elections in 38 countries and continues to forge methods and tools that lead the field.
Background: Election Observation Standards
The Carter Center worked collaboratively with the National Democratic Institute of International Affairs and the United Nations Electoral Assistance Divisio...
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