WASHINGTON -- Former President Jimmy Carter attacked members of Congress Friday for what he said was their reluctance to eliminate barriers to voting because of concern they would see 'unpredictable new voters registered.'
He was joined at a symposium on voting by former President Gerald Ford, who declared that it is too late to change the system to register large numbers of voters for next year. Ford said people should begin concentrating on changing the system for 1988.
The two former presidents were the most prominent commentators at a symposium on voting sponsored by ABC News and Harvard University. They spoke after a dinner for participants in the symposium -- including television network executives, political scientists, prominent members of Congress and others -- and speak again as participants on Saturday.
Carter recalled that he tried to alter the system of registration when he was president.
'We erect almost insurmountable barriers to registration,' he said. Then he said that during his administration he sought legislation to permit registration on election day, only to run into problems in Congress.
'We were unsuccessful,' he said. 'The key word was incumbency. Incumbent members of Congress don't want to see unpredictable new voters registered. Part of the opposition is bigotry but others want to protect their chance to be re-elected.'
Ford expressed a different set of concerns about what he called the 'deplorably low level of voter participation in the United States.'
'I am very pessimistic about a larger voter turnout in 1984,' Ford said. But he suggested that for 1988 changes could be made.
All of the changes he suggested were aimed at compressing the time span of the campaign, a move Ford said would increase interest in the campaign and would prevent candidates from making commitments that 'tie the hands of the newly elected president.'
Ford said he believes that all primaries should be compressed into a three-month period of April, May and June of the election year. He also suggested a prohibition on giving or receiving campaign contributions before the year of the presidential election.
'Such a law would reduce campaigning in the year prior to the election year,' he said.
Another suggestion he made was to have five regional primaries.
On Saturday morning, Ford joins more than a dozen other panelists for a discussion of proposals to have Election Day Sunday and 24-hour voting.
The public opinion survey found that Sunday voting might decrease voter participation, while 24-hour voting might increase it.
It found 24-hour voting -- with simultaneous opening and closing of polls around the country -- would end the problem of having television networks project winners before all polls are closed.
The survey showed that those who vote would be willing to pay higher taxes for such a system.
On Saturday afternoon, Carter joins other panelists to dicuss the problems of reporting on election night, televised debates and election information in the media.
After that session, Ford and Carter join the other panelists for a summary of the day's events.
