I’m a strong conservative. Why am I working with the Carter Center on NC election reform? | Opinion

I am securely ensconced on the political right in North Carolina, particularly on election law and policy. I have debated with a Democratic member of the General Assembly about election security, pushed for enhanced election integrity measures after the 2020 election and called for the State Board of Elections to fire both its executive director and general counsel for undermining election law.

So, why am I working with the left-leaning Carter Center on election reform in North Carolina?

The Carter Center is a sponsor of the Commission on the Future of North Carolina Elections, an organization seeking to find “common ground on fair, safe, and secure elections in North Carolina.” The commission’s main task is to “diligently examine and analyze election-related issues” and publish a “comprehensive report of its findings and any proposed election reforms.” About a third of commission members are conservatives.

The commission’s primary goal of enhancing confidence and trust in North Carolina elections dovetails with my work as the director of the Civitas Center for Public Integrity at the John Locke Foundation. Our goal at the Civitas Center is similar: to “improve the trustworthiness of North Carolina’s democratic institutions and, as a result, increase the public’s faith in those institutions.”

The problem is the public’s faith in our democratic institutions is weak. While problems undermine our election system’s security and must be fixed, it is fundamentally sound. If that were not true, there would be no point in voting.

Such democratic fatalism is currently more evident on the political right, fueled by former president Donald Trump’s allegations that widespread fraud cost him the 2020 election. A recent Survey USA poll found most Trump supporters have little or no confidence votes in the election will be counted accurately.

If allowed to fester, that fatalism will depress turnout among conservative voters, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy of believing their candidates cannot win and then ensuring they don’t win by staying home on election day.

Claims of election rigging are not exclusively a province of the right, however. In Carter’s home state of Georgia, Democrat Stacey Abrams famously refused to concede after she lost the 2018 governor’s race, claiming “the game was rigged.” Fewer than half of Democrats in a 2004 nationwide poll, taken after Democrat Al Gore lost a disputed presidential race in 2000, said they were “very confident” that the vote count in their state would be accurate. A belief that elections are rigged undermines the legitimacy of the system the Framers created. A republic can survive only if most citizens believe in it.

The Carter Center is no stranger to bipartisan election reform, and Jimmy Carter led by example. He co-chaired, with Reagan chief of staff James Baker III, the Commission on Federal Election Reform, popularly known as the Carter-Baker Commission. The commission’s report called for several election reforms, but Carter and Baker acknowledged commission members “do not necessarily support every word and recommendation” of that report.

Likewise, I will not support “every word and recommendation” in the report by the Commission on the Future of North Carolina Elections and will not be shy about pointing out those disagreements. I will be in good company. Carter distanced himself from the Carter-Baker Commission’s finding that expanding mail voting is “likely to increase the risks of fraud” when he called for states to “take immediate steps to expand vote-by-mail” sixteen years later during the 2020 election. When I disagree with some commission findings, that does not diminish my support of its mission.

We must share this republic with people whose views we may disagree with or find repugnant. For that republic to survive, people across the political spectrum must believe election results are legitimate even if they lose. The Commission on the Future of North Carolina Elections is working to enhance that legitimacy. It is a worthy goal.