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1 1 (February 23, 2023)

handle is hein.crs/govekrk0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Con gressionaI Research Ser/ce informing Ih K isaive( deate sne 1914 0 Updated February 23, 2023 The U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC): An Overview The U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) is an independent federal agency that is charged with helping voters participate in the electoral process and election officials improve the administration of elections. It was established by the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) as part of Congress's response to problems with the administration of the 2000 elections. The EAC-and the act that created it-marked something of a shift in the federal approach to election administration. Previous federal election laws had set requirements for the administration of federal elections, but HAVA was the first to back its requirements with substantial support. The act authorized grant programs for elections and an assistance- oriented elections agency, the EAC. This In Focus provides an introduction to the EAC. It describes the agency's duties and structure and briefly reviews some of its history and related legislative activity. Oveview The highest-profile problems with the administration of the 2000 elections were in Florida-where disputes about the vote count delayed resolution of the presidential race for weeks-but post-election investigations revealed widespread problems with states' conduct of elections. Those investigations also prompted suggestions about how to avoid similar problems in the future, including proposals to increase federal involvement in elections. Exactly what that involvement should look like was a matter of debate. The disagreements played out in at least two discussions relevant to the EAC: (1) whether any new federal responsibilities should be assigned to existing entities like the Federal Election Commission's (FEC's) Office of Election Administration (OEA) or an entirely new agency, and (2) whether the new responsibilities should focus solely on supporting states and localities or also include authority to compel them to act. Congress struck a compromise in HAVA by creating a new agency, the EAC, but positioning it as a support agency. That focus on assistance-in combination with other objectives, such as providing for a range of expert input into agency activities and guarding against partisanship- informed the duties and structure of the agency. Duties In keeping with its positioning as an assistance agency, the EAC's rulemaking authority is limited. HAVA explicitly restricts the agency's authority to issue rules, regulations, and other requirements for states or localities to regulations about two duties it transferred to the EAC from the FEC: (1) reporting to Congress on the impact of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA), and (2) maintaining the federal mail voter registration form required by the NVRA. That limitation does not mean the agency has no ability to influence state or local action. However, its duties are primarily oriented toward facilitating or incentivizing elections activities rather than compelling them. Those duties, which are designed for input from a range of elections stakeholders, include administering grant programs; providing for voluntary voting system guidelines (VVSG), testing, and certification; issuing voluntary guidance for implementation of certain HAVA requirements; conducting research and sharing best practices; and establishing a Help America Vote College Program to encourage students at institutions of higher education to serve as poll workers and election officials to use their services. Structure The EAC includes a commission, a professional staff led by an executive director and general counsel, an Office of Inspector General (OIG), three statutory advisory bodies, and one agency-created advisory body. The commission is designed to have four members, each of whom is required to have elections experience or expertise and no more than two of whom may be affiliated with the same political party. Commissioners are recommended by the majority or minority leadership of the House or Senate and appointed by the President subject to the advice and consent of the Senate. Action on activities the commission is authorized by HAVA to conduct, such as updating the VVSG and appointing statutory officers, requires approval by a three-vote quorum of the commissioners. The EAC has two statutory officers, the executive director and general counsel, who are appointed by the commission with input in the case of the executive director from two of the agency's advisory bodies. HAVA authorizes the executive director to hire other professional staff. The size of the EAC's staff has varied, from the four commissioners and handful of transfers from the FEC's OEA in FY2004 to 50 full-time equivalent positions in FY2010, about 25 to 30 between FY2013 and FY2020, and 46 in FY2021. One of the EAC OIG's primary responsibilities is auditing recipients of grant funds administered by the EAC. The OIG also conducts internal audits and investigations of the agency itself, including audits of its finances, reports on management challenges, and investigations of complaints of fraud, waste, mismanagement, and abuse. The OIG conducted a 2008 investigation of alleged political bias in

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