The U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) was created by the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA). The Commission is charged with administering voluntary guidelines for election requirements under HAVA, maintaining a clearinghouse of information regarding election administration procedures including testing and certification of election equipment, and administering the Election Assistance and Help America Vote Programs. The Commission has not met the deadlines imposed by Congress in HAVA.

In 2003, Congress appropriated $1.5 billion for HAVA. The General Services Administration distributed most of the $650 million permitted under Title I of HAVA, but the remainder was earmarked for the EAC to disburse. The funds languished because the commissioners were not confirmed until 9 Dec. 2003; the law had required that they be in place by 26 Feb. 2003. The commissioners are Gracia Hillman, former executive director of the League of Women Voters of the United States; Paul DeGregorio, International Foundation for Election Systems; Raymundo Martinez III, an Austin lawyer; and DeForest Soaries, the Baptist minister who endorsed the administration's "faith-based initiatives" who is former New Jersey Secretary of State.

The EAC has also been charged with studying and assessing human factor research, including usability and human-computer/machine interaction, that could be applied to voting products and system design to ensure usability and accuracy. The EAC was to submit a report to Congress assessing these issues not later than one year after the date of enactment of the HAVA [October 29, 2003]. This deadline was not met.

In its 2004 budget, Congress again allocated $1.5 billion to fund HAVA. By mid-January, 2004, the EAC had no permanent offices or budget, even though it must publish state election reform plans in the Federal Register before money for new voting equipment can be disbursed to the states.

Postponing elections

A June 25 letter from Chairman Soaries to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge concerned dealing with terrorism aimed at disrupting the nation's elections. Soaries asked whether procedures were being devised to guide local election officials and offered his agency's help. He noted that New York City had rescheduled its mayoral primary because of the September 11, 2001, attacks. "Unlike New York, the federal government has no agency that has the statutory authority to cancel and reschedule a federal election," he wrote.

The letter surfaced when Newsweek reported Sunday that U.S. counterterrorism officials were reviewing a proposal that provides for postponing the elections in the event of an attack, a development of which Ridge's spokesman merely reported he was "unaware." The Justice Department had not tackled the issue either, an official there said, though the Bush administration claims that postponing an election is a "legal issue" not a constitutional one.

External links

• Election Assistance Commission (http://fecweb1.fec.gov/hava/eac.htm)
• The Price of Democracy, GovTech.com (http://www.govtech.net/magazine/story.php?id=89801)
• Senate approves EAC (http://www.lwvlosangeles.org/HavaEAC.htm)