With the 2000 presidential election’s voting debacle still raw, President George W. Bush in 2002, signed into law the “Help America Vote Act,” which he promised would help “ensure the integrity and efficiency of voting processes in federal elections.” A key component: the Election Assistance Commission, a new, bipartisan federal agency tasked with adopting voting system guidelines, distributing grants and otherwise aiding states in improving their election processes. But the little commission soon hit downdrafts. Congress routinely cut its already modest budget. The federal government moved its headquarters from prime digs in downtown Washington, DC, to a nondescript office tower in suburban Maryland. Then in 2010, the Election Assistance Commission began a nearly five-year stretch where it lacked enough appointed commissioners to conduct meetings, and, therefore, conduct its most important business. Some members of Congress tried, and failed, to kill what had effectively become a zombie agency.
Now, after years of such turbulence, three of the agency’s four commissioner slots are filled — enough, at least, to function. And today, Thomas Hicks, a Democrat and former attorney for the Committee on House Administration, assumes the Election Assistance Commission’s chairmanship.
For Hicks, the post is years coming: President Barack Obama initially nominated him in early 2010, but the Senate didn’t appoint him to the commission until late 2014. His challenges are numerous, from helping ensure elections are free and fair to grappling with advocacy groups’ outrage over the actions of his agency’s executive director.
Full Article: Want honest elections? Meet America’s new election integrity watchdog | Public Radio International.