On Jan. 5, the people of Georgia go to the polls to elect a new president.

No, the Peach State is not seceding from the union again, but the ex-Soviet republic of Georgia is about to undergo elections. And Kansas University professor Diana Carlin is in the country now, helping them set up debates as the nascent democracy feels its way through another election.

“After all of the years that I’ve researched, written about, and planned debates in the U.S., I have come to believe that they are the single best way to educate voters,” Carlin said by e-mail. “My research through DebateWatch confirms that every election cycle.”

And educated voters are especially important in Georgia because it was the voters who brought about the elections. According to the Associated Press, citizens demonstrated against President Mikhail Saakashvili after an independent TV station was taken off the air.

Saakashvili resigned on Nov. 25, will seek to reclaim the post in the upcoming election.

“I’m sure that January 5 will go down in Georgia’s history as the beginning of a big move forward,” Saakashvili said to The Associated Press.

Carlin, former dean of the Graduate School and International Programs at KU, said that since arriving she has discovered that the short time between the president stepping down and the scheduled election day has led to disorganized campaigns. So far, she said, candidates from parties that have “qualified” for the election are campaigning. Other parties, which can appear on the ballots with enough signatures, still are trying to gather those names.

“The media is working very hard to inform voters about the parties and candidates. Every network has some type of talk show, interview show or debate,” Carlin said.

In Georgia, the rules of politics are still being written. Voter registration lists, management of polling places, counting ballots and preventing fraud are all major issues there, Carlin said.

Carlin has been working from scratch to create debates that will appeal to the people of Georgia. So far, debates have featured political operatives for each presidential candidate, but the candidates themselves have not yet debated. One debate feature that’s taken off in the United States this year also has become popular in Georgia: the voter-supplied video question.

“The staff involved in planning the debates want citizen participation and did the video questions and also had a number on the screen for SMS (text-messaging) questions,” Carlin said. “Someone in the control room tracks the questions and determines the most common ones and sends them to the moderator.”

The pre-election visit to Georgia isn’t Carlin’s first international trip. She did some work a few years ago in Eastern Europe. Carlin said she hoped she’d be able to continue to help developing democracies form the basis of their electoral systems.

“By participating in these international projects, I learn a great deal that I bring back to my students, and it creates new directions for my own research,” Carlin said. “But more importantly, it is very exciting to share knowledge with others in a way that has an immediate impact.”