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Descendants of Presidents Ford and Carter discuss election trust

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About 50 University of Michigan students, faculty and staff and Ann Arbor community members gathered at the Ford School of Public Policy to attend the first event of the Principles for Trusted Elections Conference Series Wednesday evening. The series is a two day nonpartisan event put on by the Ford Presidential Foundation, the Carter Center and the Public Policy School. 

The event was co-chaired by Mike Ford, eldest son of former President Gerald R. Ford and trustee of the Ford Presidential Foundation, and Jason Carter, grandson of former President Jimmy Carter and chair of the Carter Center Board of Trustees. The talk was moderated by Jeff Polet, director of the Ford Leadership Forum at the Ford Presidential Foundation. 

The event began with an introduction from Public Policy Dean Celeste Watkins-Hayes, who connected the conference to the University of Michigan’s larger Year of Democracy, Civic Empowerment & Global Engagement initiative. 

“The topic (at hand) — how do we run fair state elections — is relevant to the University-wide Year of Democracy, Civic Empowerment & Global Engagement,” Watkin-Hayes said. “We believe that through civic engagement, we can navigate the complexities of a democratic society together. We recognize that democracy depends on diverse perspectives, and in that spirit, hope to inspire everyone to be part of this democracy theme year.”

Ford began the panel by reflecting on the legacy of respectful rivalry and even friendship between his father and Carter’s grandfather. 

“Even though (Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter) had differences, they had a common love for their country,” Ford said. “They had a common sense of what the American democratic republic, the constitutional republic, was about, and they wanted, in some ways, to demonstrate how people from different political parties, different perspectives, could come together and try to find compromise.”

Ford went on to relate the relationship between former Presidents Carter and Ford, a Democrat and a Republican, respectively, to the relationship between the Democratic and Republican Parties today.

“The two parties today, unfortunately, have in some ways been kind of overtaken by the more extreme elements in each party,” Ford said. “I think there’s a strong sense of ‘we don’t believe that we should give up, or we should concede, or we should give ground.’ I feel like there’s a real, not just polarization, but a real sense of distrust and unwillingness to work (together) towards getting a good outcome.”

Ford further emphasized his hope that today’s political parties cooperate together again.

“I think it can be done again,” Ford said. “I hope that after this election, there is a calming or a dampening of emotions, and there is some reconciliation among some of the political candidates, and we can come together as an American nation in unity.”

While Ford identified political polarization as one of the biggest issues threatening American democracy and electoral integrity today, Carter addressed the rise of misinformation through social media, specifically concerning false claims made about the results of the 2020 presidential election.

“I think that mis- and disinformation (are) a huge deal,” Carter said. “You have people isolating themselves, social media wise in echo chambers, that makes it very, very difficult to trust the system.”

Carter also said he remained hopeful, identifying five principles that the Carter Center found to be critical to maintaining integrity in elections. 

“One is honesty, that there’s an honest process,” Carter said. “(Two) that there’s nonviolent campaigning. The next is secure voting to ensure that the system itself works with enough transparency to be trusted. The fourth is called responsible oversight, which means that people have access and transparency to look at and examine the way that the system works. And the last is that you trust the outcome.… These are not partisan principles. They’re not really even American principles necessarily. They’re just democracy.”

In an interview with The Daily after the event, LSA sophomore Allison Tate said she enjoyed the panel’s hopeful outlook on America’s political future.

“I think a lot of us look at the way our politics are right now … and we just kind of assume it’s the end of times,” Tate said. “But I really think that today is a testament to the fact that our nation is a great nation, because we value everyone’s opinion and because we value civility.”

Daily Staff Reporter Lyra Wilder can be reached at lyrawild@umich.edu.

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