“We’ve learned a lot about Democracy in Latin America, and they have made a lot of progress….The elections in Venezuela, although some people have criticized the result….there’s no doubt in our mind….that he [Hugo Chavez] won fairly and squarely…As a matter a fact, of the 92 elections we’ve monitored, I would say the election process in Venezuela is the best in the world!…..Mexico had their first honest election and the Carter Center was the only monitor invited in….all the other countries in Latin America, except for one [Venezuela]….and another one in North America [United States]….has public financing of all the election process.  If you qualify to run for public office you get public financing, and outside money does not affect the outcome of the election……The United States election process is shot through now with, I’d say, financial corruption.  We have one of the worst election processes in the world.“-Former U.S. President, true Christian and international election observer Jimmy Carter, 11 September 2012 annual Carter Center “Conversation”, in response to question about election monitoring in Latin America

The former president was talking about the more than 90 countries that his organization, The Carter Center, has worked to observe elections, to make sure they are fair.

The month after Carter made his statements about U.S. democracy, the U.S. states of Texas and Iowa announced they would arrest international election observers that entered polling places.

Carter says the main problem is private financing of campaigns for public office.  He explained there was a time when candidates used only public financing to run for office: “You know how much [privately sourced] money I raised when I ran against Gerald Ford [1976 U.S. Presidential elections]? Zero!…. You know how much [privately sourced] money I raised to run against Ronald Reagan [1980 U.S. Presidential elections]? Zero! We got public financing for the elections. You know how much [privately sourced] money’s gonna be raised this year in the United States for the President, and the Senate and House elections?  Six billion dollars!…..And that money comes from people who, now under the Supreme Court ruling, don’t have to be identified….and a lot of it can come from corporations partially owned by foreigners.”

Carter said the only way the election process can begin to be fixed is if the U.S. Supreme Court reverses its “stupid decision”, and there is a return to public financing of national campaigns.