[EL] EAC nominations

[Rick Hasen]

<http://electionlawblog.org/>


    Breaking: U.S. Election Assistance Commission May Be Back with
    Commissioners Soon <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=63460>

Posted on July 17, 2014 2:09 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=63460>by 
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

President Obama just announced two nominations 
<http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/07/17/president-obama-announces-more-key-administration-posts-0>for 
the U.S. Assistance Commission. Matthew Masterson and Christy McCormick 
are Republican-chosen nominees to join the two nominees from the 
Democrats, Thomas Hicks and Myrna Perez.

The EAC was created as part of the 2002 Help America Vote Act as a way 
of providing best practices and doling out voting machine money in the 
wake of the Florida 2000 debacle. The commission functions with two 
Democratic nominees and two Republican nominees.

As I explain in The Voting Wars 
<http://www.amazon.com/Voting-Wars-Florida-Election-Meltdown/dp/0300182031/ref=sr_1_cc_2?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1329286945&sr=1-2-catcorr>, 
the EAC started out with some independent commissioners who looked like 
they were going to transcend partisan politics and get some stuff done. 
But then there was controversy over a voter id report, and pressure on 
Republican commissioners. The Commission then started deadlocking on 
party lines. Eventually, Republican commissioners then Democratic 
commissioners left the commission, and none have been confirmed since.  
Many Republicans have told me they considered the agency unnecessary and 
too biased toward Democrats, and House Republicans voted to defund the 
agency.

Until today the Democratic nominations were in abeyance. Perhaps the 
logjam was broken because Republicans realized that with the nuclear 
option Democrats were ready to nominate their two commissioners. Even 
though two commissioners could not vote on anything binding, it would 
give them a platform from which to speak.

What will be exceptionally interesting now, assuming we get all four 
commissioners on board, is what happens to the Kobach v. EAC litigation 
over whether Kansas and Arizona must accept voters who register with the 
EAC-approved federal form but do not provide documentary proof of 
citizenship as the states require.  The EAC is pushing forward with its 
appeal (the states won in the lower court), but what happens if the four 
new commissioners deadlock on moving forward?

As Doug Chapin likes to say, "Stay Tuned."

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Posted in election administration <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, 
Election Assistance Commission <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=34>, The 
Voting Wars <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>

-- 
Rick Hasen
Chancellor's Professor of Law and Political Science
UC Irvine School of Law
401 E. Peltason Dr., Suite 1000
Irvine, CA 92697-8000
949.824.3072 - office
949.824.0495 - fax
rhasen at law.uci.edu
http://www.law.uci.edu/faculty/full-time/hasen/
http://electionlawblog.org

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