President Jimmy Carter would demand entry into suspect polling stations in the middle of the night and persuade power-hungry heads of state to admit defeat when votes were tallied, recalls National Endowment for Democracy (NED) Chairman Kenneth Wollack of election observation trips together when Wollack served as president of the National Democratic Institute.
NED mourns the loss of President Carter and pays tribute to his unrelenting leadership as a global champion of democracy and freedom.
National Endowment for Democracy’s CHAIRMAN Kenneth Wollack REFLECTS on the impact of President jimmy Carter:
“While President Carter’s passing was not unexpected, his absence feels no less consequential, and personal.
As vice president and then president of the National Democratic Institute, I was privileged to spend a good deal of time with the President during many years of election observation, from Panama, Paraguay, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic, to Nigeria, Palestine and Indonesia. I saw personally how he made a difference in people’s lives and shaped the course of countries toward greater freedom—in which the dignity of the individual was valued and protected. I witnessed how he would leap from his hotel bed at 3:00 am to demand entry into a polling site where suspect vote counting was being reported. And I observed how he would cajole heads of state to accept electoral defeat when their instinct was to maintain power at all costs.
President Carter not only preached the virtues of human rights and democracy, as did his predecessors and successors, but he gave concrete expression to those words and values. He was, in short, a singular force for good. There are millions of people in every corner of the world who have been impacted by his leadership and who will always honor his legacy. I include myself among them.
My deepest sympathies to the Carter family and to the family of The Carter Center. May his memory be a blessing. ”
~ Kenneth Wollack, chairman of the National Endowment for Democracy and former president of the National Democratic Institute, January 9, 2025
