Carter: Unlimited contributions 'legal bribery'

ATLANTA (AP) -- Former President Jimmy Carter says unlimited political contributions are "legal bribery of candidates."

Carter said Wednesday that while elections in the United States once set an example for other democracies to follow, the quality of the nation's electoral process has slipped.

He made the remarks at an Atlanta forum where an agency of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe released its report on last year's U.S. election. The U.S. government invited the European agency to observe the process.

Carter says the U.S. Supreme Court made a "very stupid" decision when it removed limits on independent campaign spending by businesses and labor unions.

The former Democratic president and his Republican opponents used public financing to run their general election campaigns in 1976 and 1980.