While the White House has instinctively nominated “voter fraud denier” Myrna Perez with absolutely no election administration experience to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC), the House Administration Committee has been working closely with state and local election officials in crafting substitute language that quietly ends the tenure of the EAC.  It is apparent that the House believes that they must end the current dysfunctionality, regulatory growth, and overhead cost of the EAC and begin again with a different slimmed down model. 

In anticipation of a legislative markup, the committee primarily responsible for election administration oversight is now actively floating a new proposal to the election community, including the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS), that address the important issues and functions that election administrators wish to continue in any post-EAC environment.

The proposed amendment by Representative Harper would terminate the EAC and transfer some of its key functions going forward.  The substitute then transfers the EAC’s Office of Voting System Testing and Certification to the Federal Election Commission (FEC).  In the original bill, NIST would have been responsible for these duties.  The second change creates formal committees for development of the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG).  The legislation would maintain the current Technical Guidelines Development Committee (TGDC) but the current Standards and Advisory Boards would be replaced by a new 56 member Guidelines Review Board that would be composed of state and local election officials and other interested parties.