Baker said he hoped the report would "help transform the sterile debate between Democrats and Republicans on election reform issues and provide the impetus for our federal and state leaders to take action now, when we still have plenty of time before our next presidential election."
Baker played a central role for Bush during the Florida vote recount in 2000, building the Supreme Court case that stopped the tally with Bush leading by 537 votes.
If the states adopt the recommendation that nonpartisan officials run elections, the process would be removed from offices such as that led in 2000 by then-Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, who was at the same time a co-chair of Bush's Florida campaign.
Her dual role raised questions about the integrity of the vote, just as the partisanship of Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, a co-chair of Bush's 2004 campaign in that state, raised some doubts about the fairness of the presidential voting there last year.
As in Florida in 2000, if Bush had lost the Ohio vote he would have lost the election.
Supporting its call for nonpartisan election offices, the report said that "we cannot build confidence in elections if secretaries of State responsible for certifying votes are simultaneously chairing political campaigns."
In response to concern that votes cast on electronic machines might not be counted -- one of the factors that surfaced in Florida -- the panel recommended a system that would create a paper record of the vote, to give voters confidence "that their votes will be counted accurately."
And the report echoed the call by others that political parties hold four regional presidential primaries, after the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, rather than the week-by-week contests that give undue influence to states with early primary dates. If the political parties do not make the changes by 2008, "Congress should legislate the change," the report said.
Among the commission's other recommendations:
* Establishment of a "universal voting registration system." States, rather than local jurisdictions, would be responsible for the accuracy of voter lists. State lists should be interchangeable so that "people would need to register only once in their lifetime, and it would be easy to update their registration information when they move."
