At last: nominees for election commission

Nearly one year after signing legislation to provide federal money for states and counties to upgrade their voting systems, President Bush has formally submitted his nominations for the four members of the commission that will distribute those funds. Senate confirmation hearings for the nominees — two Republicans and two Democrats — were scheduled for late October.

In October 2002, in response to the Florida presidential recount debacle, Bush signed the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) into law. The law calls for the federal government to spend $3.9 billion over three years to help states and counties replace punch-card ballots and pull-lever voting machines with more modern equipment, such as touch-screen voting stations. States and local governments also can use the money for voter education programs and poll-worker training.

To distribute the federal funds, HAVA established the four-member Election Assistance Commission (EAC). However, because of the nominee delay, the commission has yet to begin operations, which has greatly frustrated state and local officials who are waiting for EAC to distribute an initial round of $833 million in grants.

At press time, the nominees were expected to be confirmed with little or no fuss, which means the commission could be up and running after the first of the year. “They have a lot of set up they have to do,” says Dan Selingson, projects editor of electionline.org, a non-partisan Web site that monitors election reform efforts. “They’ll have to pick an office, hire staff, especially an executive director, and, while they might have all of this done by the end of the year, I really don’t anticipate them being fully functional until January.”

The two Democrats nominated by Bush are Ray Martinez, an Austin, Texas, lawyer who served in the Clinton administration and now runs a non-partisan organization dedicated to increasing voter participation in Texas; and Gracia Hillman, a former executive director of the League of Women Voters who is currently the president and CEO of The Hillman Group, a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm. The two Republicans are Paul DeGregorio, a former local election official in Missouri who is currently the executive vice president of the Washington, D.C.-based International Foundation for Election Systems; and the Rev. Deforest Soaries Jr., who served as New Jersey’s Secretary of State from 1999 to 2002.

In addition to the delay, lower-than-expected funding also has frustrated state and local government officials. For example, the bill authorized $1 billion for federal fiscal year 2004. However, in late October, proposed appropriations bills were calling for only $500 million.

Meanwhile, two important deadlines related to HAVA are approaching. Starting in January, precincts will have to provide provisional ballots to people who show up to vote in federal elections but whose names are not listed on the voter rolls. Their votes will be set aside until their voting eligibility can be determined, at which time they are either counted or discarded. While many jurisdictions already have provisional voting, HAVA will require each state or county to have a phone number or Web site that provisional voters can use to find out if their vote was included. Also beginning at the start of next year, first-time voters in federal elections who register by mail will be required to provide some type of identification at the polls.

M. Mindy Moretti is the senior staff writer for County News, a publication of the Washington, D.C.-based National Association of Counties.