Former congressman Joe Baca, a veteran of more than a dozen elections of his own, took his experience on the road more than 7,000 miles to be an election observer in the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan.
"It’s a free democracy,” Baca said Thursday, after his return to the United States two days earlier. "It’s probably the only one that exists in that region.”
Baca, who represented parts of the Inland Empire in Congress from 1999 to 2012, was one of 20 American election observers, and one of four former members of Congress.
He liked what he saw there, when the team visited randomly selected polling stations.
"The people were able to go to the polls without being intimidated, being able to cast their votes,” Baca said.
And American voters could learn something from the Azerbaijani, he said:
"It’s really appalling to me that the American people here, that only 10 percent of the people turned out to vote (in San Bernardino on Tuesday), according to the Sun-Telegram. There, 70 to 80 percent of the people turned out to vote.”
And they made it a family affair:
"Some of the people who turned out to vote would take their children to the polls,” Baca said. "And the children would start to get the importance of voting.”
Baca also praised the lower number of campaign signs near polling stations. He did suggest to local officials that they should work to make polling places more accessible to the disabled.
"They’re really fighting for freedom and democracy and trying to get more people to participate,” Baca said. "I was amazed that 60 percent of the elected officials are women, which is great.”
Baca’s sunny take on democracy in Azerbaijan is not universally shared: The European Parliament criticized the country’s human rights record, which it said has "deteriorated continuously over the last few years,” in a resolution passed on Sept. 15. The resolution also noted that Azerbaijani authorities have jailed journalists and human rights activists and peaceful protests have been banned since 2006.
Baca’s six days in Azerbaijan were cold and wet — Baku is on a peninsula sticking out into the Caspian Sea.
"The food was different. I ate a lot of salmon and swordfish and bread. My wife said maybe I lost a little weight while I was there,” he said. "Their coffee is awful strong.”
Although he doesn’t know that he’s likely to go on vacation to the former Soviet republic any time soon, Baca praised Azerbaijan as an island of democracy, especially as compared to its neighbors Russia, Georgia, Armenia and Iran.
"The people take their elections serious and their votes serious,” Baca said. "It’s a (democratic) process in a country surrounded by turmoil.”
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