Today there was an hearing on the termination of the EAC.  In these tough budget times, the hearing brought the demise of the agency a step closer.  When Roll Call hints that an agency may be closing, the end may be near.  But a full throated defense of the dysfunctional agency by Democrats and the support of one of the original sponsors of HAVA may mean the agency doesn’t go out with a whimper.  The Committee heard the testimony of three Secretaries of States arguing that the agency has outlived its usefulness and they maintained that other agencies such as the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) could handle the current EAC duties in certain overseas voting issues and NVRA/UOCAVA data gathering.  Chairman Harper stated that the continued funding of the bloated agency was unjustified and that after six years after HAVA, the EAC has done little to solve the millions of citizens that do not participate in the voting process.  Ranking Member Gonzalez recognized the agency’s shortcoming but compared the current dysfunction of the EAC to problems with the early state of the nation with the “Articles of Confederation.”  He analogized the necessary reforms of the EAC to the task revising America’s first constitution into a workable solution between the states.  In a slight (likely unintended) to both DOJ and the FVAP, Rep. Hoyer claimed the EAC protects the voting rights of all Americans, including overseas military voters.  In a similar argument, he stated that the EAC’s continued existence will ensure that the Voting Rights Act actually means something for citizens.  

In the hearing, the Republicans argued that that the primary beneficiaries of the agency (election officials) no longer believe that the EAC is needed, instead seeing it as intruding on the historic state role in running elections.  Gonzalez insisted that local election officials appreciate the agency and that the Congress should improve the agency, not end it.  He also claimed that the EAC protects the rights of all Americans to vote despite its limited regulatory powers, arguing the EAC is still desperately needed to oversee such problems as the Wisconsin recount, overseas military voting, and continued research into disability voting.