ELECTORAL ASSISTANCE STATE TO STATE AND PUBLIC FINANCING FOR PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES VS ESTABLISHING A WAY OF DISENFRANCHISING THE UNPOPULAR VOTERS
COMPILATION AND COMMENTARY
BY LUCY WARNER
JULY 27, 2017


A NATIONAL VOTER REGISTRATION FORM, WHICH IS PART OF THE PURPOSE OF THE EAC, TO BE USED BY ALL REGISTRANTS WOULD BE HELPFUL ABOUT REGULARIZING THE SELECTIVELY IRREGULAR VOTER ELIGIBILITY AND REGISTRATION PROCEDURES FROM STATE TO STATE. THE HOUSE REPUBLICANS VOTED TO DEFUND THE EAC WHICH COVERS THAT. NOT SURPRISING. HOWEVER, A SIMILAR STATES’ RIGHTS ISSUE HAS OCCURRED IN RESPONSE TO TRUMP’S PRESIDENTIAL COMMISSION ON VOTER INTEGRITY. THE MAIN PURPOSE FOR THAT IS TO IDENTIFY AND ROOT OUT ILLEGAL VOTING, WHICH TRUMP CLAIMS IS RESPONSIBLE FOR HIS FAILURE TO BE CREDITED WITH THE POPULAR VOTE AS WELL AS THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE VOTE. KOBACH, HOWEVER, WHEN HE FOLLOWED UP A VERY NOSY QUESTIONNAIRE WITH A DEMANDING LETTER CAUSED A REBELLION. THE QUESTIONNAIRE ASKING ABOUT DETAILS ON EACH REGISTERED VOTER IN THE STATE INCLUDING THEIR SSN AND VOTING HISTORY CAUSED IMMEDIATE REACTIONS. MISSISSIPPI'S SECRETARY OF STATE INVITED KOBACH TO GO JUMP IN THE GULF OF MEXICO! ABOUT HALF THE STATES HAVE REFUSED TO COMPLY, EITHER WHOLLY OR PARTIALLY. DONALD TRUMP JUST DOESN'T HAVE THE COMMON TOUCH. HE NEEDS TO TWEET OUT "THAT WAS JUST A JOKE."

BOTH ARE DISTURBING TO ME, AS THEY INVOLVE DISENFRANCHISING DEMOCRATS PURPOSELY, AND THE PATCHWORK OF STATE LAWS IN WHICH MANY UNCONSTITUTIONALLY DISCRIMINATORY NUGGETS ARE NESTLED, ALONG WITH THE VOTING MACHINES AND VOTE COUNTING ISSUES FROM FAILING TECHNOLOGY AND DIFFERENT MANUFACTURERS. THOSE THINGS INTRODUCE IRREGULARITIES THAT CAUSE UNCERTAINTY. THEN THERE IS TRUMPS EXECUTIVE ORDER, WHICH IS ATTEMPTING TO IDENTIFY POSSIBLY ILLEGAL VOTING GROUPS. ALSO, I BELIEVE, BECAUSE OF THE AMOUNT OF PERSONAL DETAIL HIS COMMISSION IS REQUESTING, IT WOULD BE A PERFECT COMPANION FILE TO OTHER “BIG BROTHER FILES,” AS IT AMOUNTS TO A PLATFORM FOR INITIATING ACTION AGAINST INDIVIDUALS. REPUBLICANS ARE AFTER THEM WITH THEIR HATCHETS TO INCREASE THEIR CHANCE OF WINNING IN THE FUTURE. TRUMP WANTS IT TO “SAVE FACE” IN THE 2016 LOSS OF THE POPULAR VOTE. BUT BECAUSE THE CONDUCTING OF THE ELECTION IS A STATES’ RIGHTS ISSUE, TRUMP’S ORDER IS RUNNING INTO BACKLASH FROM ABOUT HALF THE STATES. WE DO NEED REGULARIZATION BADLY, BUT I DON‘T WANT IT TO BE BY AN ALL REPUBLICAN VOTE, OR WORSE BY THE HEAVY HAND OF PRESIDENT TRUMP PERSONALLY WEIGHING IN ON THE DECISION MAKING.

TRUMP’S MAIN ISSUE SEEMS TO BE THAT HE WANTS TO PROVE THAT HE ACTUALLY GOT THE POPULAR VOTE OVER HILLARY, AND THAT HER 3 MILLION OR SO MARGIN OVER HIM WAS DUE TO ILLEGAL VOTING BY ALIENS, FELONS, ETC. IT SEEMS TO ME THAT WE DO NEED BOTH ELECTION ISSUES HANDLED, ALWAYS, BUT IN A FAIR AND UNBIASED WAY, AND NOT FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. IF THERE WAS MASSIVE ILLEGAL VOTING, THAT CERTAINLY SHOULD BE DISCOVERED, BUT I JUST DON’T BELIEVE IT – NOT THREE MILLION VOTES DIFFERENCE. THE FEC’S VOTE COUNT WAS WILDLY DIFFERENT, AND REPORTING THAT IS PART OF THEIR JOB.

BESIDES, THE VERY FACT THAT TRUMP’S PRESIDENTIAL COMMISSION QUESTIONNAIRE SEEKS TO IDENTIFY ALL VOTERS INDIVIDUALLY ON A SURPRISINGLY PERSONAL LEVEL, FROM SSN TO ADDRESS AND TELEPHONE; THIS TYPE OF KNOWLEDGE OF EACH VOTER WON’T SOLVE THE PUZZLE OF WHO EACH VOTE WAS CAST FOR, BUT IS SET UP IN SUCH A WAY THAT A DETERMINED “THOUGHT POLICE” FORCE COULD TRACK US LIBS DOWN AND MAKE UNFRIENDLY CONTACT. MAYBE TRUMP DOESN’T MEAN TO USE IT THAT WAY, BUT IT IS OBVIOUSLY DANGEROUS IN THE WRONG HANDS, AS WELL AS PHILOSOPHICALLY UNACCEPTABLE. IF WE DID, FOR INSTANCE, VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS EVERY YEAR CONSISTENTLY, WE COULD BE IN BIG TROUBLE WITH HARDCORE PARTY ZEALOTS AND WITH AN EGOMANIACAL HEAD OF STATE LIKE PRESIDENT TRUMP.

SEE THE FOLLOWING ARTICLES.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/07/19/pence-tries-his-best-to-keep-unsaid-what-trump-then-says-about-election-integrity/?utm_term=.346c9dadf01a
Politics Analysis
Pence tries his best to keep unsaid what Trump then says about election integrity
By Philip Bump July 19, 2017

Screen grab and video -- President Trump made remarks on July 19 at the first meeting of his commission investigating his allegations of voter fraud during the 2016 election. (Reuters)

Shortly before a planned lunch with Republican senators during which he hoped to twist some arms on the issue of health care, President Trump stopped by the inaugural meeting of his Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity to offer a few words of support.

NOTE: The commission was formed in May, when Trump signed an executive order calling for a body that would “study the registration and voting processes used in Federal elections” with an eye toward “enhanc[ing] the American people’s confidence in the integrity of the voting processes used in Federal elections” and identifying “vulnerabilities in voting systems and practices used for Federal elections that could lead to improper voter registrations and improper voting.”

All of that was executive-order-speak for the investigation Trump actually sought: An effort to suss out any and all examples of people demonstrably — or possibly — having voted illegally.

Before the 2016 election, Trump warned ominously of the threat of illegal votes, a long-standing boogeyman on the right that was often used as an excuse to impose new voting restrictions that had the not-always-accidental side effect of making it harder for Democrats to vote. (There is, we hasten to note, zero evidence of even relatively frequent illegal voting.) Trump raised this ghoulish specter because, it’s safe to assume, he wanted a fail-safe in the event that he lost: It wasn’t that he was not the choice of the American people, he could argue, it was that the other side cheated. (It’s certainly the case, though, that a man whose media diet slants heavily toward the far right and the conspiratorial may actually have believed the argument he was making.)

Then something weird happened: He won and lost the election. He would be president, but the votes indicated that the country actually preferred the other candidate by a pretty wide margin. So Trump, oddly, embraced the idea that there was rampant fraud in the election anyway, despite it yielding the result he wanted. He championed a random guy’s tweet that claimed to prove that millions of votes were cast illegally — a figure that would make Trump, not Hillary Clinton, the choice of real Americans.

Hence the commission: Prove that Clinton’s victory wasn’t what it appeared.

[Here’s how rare in-person voter fraud is]

Vice President Pence, though, knows the political world better than that. Trump’s commission faced hostility out of the gates, as Democratic states realized that it could be the first step in rolling back access to the polling place. So Pence’s introduction at the first meeting of the commission that he chairs was careful to paint a picture that was broader than just Trump’s concerns.



https://thevotingnews.com/tag/election-assistance-commission/
Verified Voting Home | Election Assistance Commission
National: House Republicans Want to Eliminate Election Assistance Commission | Government Executive
Jul 4 2017

» The Voting News

House Republicans are taking aim at a small federal agency that helps provide election oversight and guidance, saying its functions are no longer necessary. A spending bill from the House Appropriations Committee unveiled Thursday would give the Election Assistance Commission 60 days to terminate itself. The small agency was created after the tightly contested 2000 presidential election. It has an annual budget of about $10 million and had just 31 employees on its rolls as of March. The agency writes election management guidelines and develops specifications for testing and certifying voting systems, among other tasks. … Democrats introduced an amendment at the markup to save the agency, arguing that its role was more important than ever given the attempts by the Russian government to interfere with the 2016 election. Republicans rejected that line of thinking, noting the Homeland Security Department, and not EAC, has jurisdiction over election-related cybersecurity issues.

Brenda Bowser Soder, an EAC spokeswoman, said the agency has been “active in the conversation around cybersecurity for a long time.” EAC, she explained, provides cybersecurity experts with information on election processes. She added the agency helps to increase voting access, boost security and update election equipment.

Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., the author of the EAC amendment, said the proposal would mark a step backward for the country. Eliminating the agency “would be dramatically out of step with the federal government’s work to improve the nation’s election systems,” Quigley said. “No other federal agency has the capacity, willingness or expertise to effectively absorb these functions.”

… Richard Hasen, a law professor at University of California, Irvine, founding co-editor of the Election Law Journal and author of the Election Law Blog, said it would be a “tremendous mistake” to assume other agencies would take on EAC’s duties. The role of the FEC, for example, has become much more complicated in recent years while also getting increasingly deadlocked by political leadership. Hasen noted the fight to eliminate the EAC is not a new one, as House Republicans view the agency as federal infringement on an inherently state and local function.

“Even though it has no real power,” Hasen said, alluding to EAC’s voluntary guidance, Republicans “say it’s too powerful.”

Full Article: House Republicans Want to Eliminate Federal Election Assistance Agency – Management – GovExec.com.

RELATED:

http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/340143-house-dem-seeks-to-restore-funding-to-the-election-assistance-commission
House Dem seeks to restore funding to the Election Assistance Commission
BY JOE UCHILL - 06/29/17 04:42 PM EDT

Photograph -- Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.)© Greg Nash

Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) introduced an amendment to the appropriations bill on Thursday to fund the Election Assistance Commission (EAC).

The EAC provides services to state elections officials, including playing a role in election cybersecurity. The EAC is currently slated to be entirely defunded by the end of 2018.

"In order to prevent future attacks against our democratic process, we must harden our defenses," Quigley said in remarks launching his amendment.

“Eliminating the EAC, the federal government’s only independent direct line of communication to state and local election officials, would be dramatically out of step with the federal government’s work to improve election systems and provide states with the support they need to hold accurate and secure elections."

The EAC is not the only agency involved in election cybersecurity. The Department of Homeland Security declared elections critical infrastructure at the end of last year, allowing it to provide voluntary assistance to states on a variety of security fronts.

The EAC's role in cybersecurity is in certifying laboratories for states to use to test the security of voting machines and conducting some of its own testing. The testing, either EAC's or a private lab's, is based on standards designed by another agency, the National Institute of Standards and Technology. States are not required to use EAC's testing regime.

EAC services also include training, designing voluntary poll worker guidelines and working on a national voter registration form.

Some states have complained that the EAC is intended as a first step toward federalizing elections, despite its services being voluntary.

The Quigley amendment seeks $9.2 million to fund the EAC.



https://techcrunch.com/2017/02/07/bill-to-eliminate-commission-overseeing-voting-system-security-advances-in-congress/
Government Election Assitance Commission EAC
House moves to eliminate commission overseeing voting system security
Posted Feb 7, 2017 by Devin Coldewey

Amid allegations at the highest levels that all is not right with America’s voting system, it seems strange that legislation would be proposed that eliminates an organization created specifically to maintain that voting system’s security. But these are strange times.

HR 634 passed through the Committee on House Administration today, clearing a path for it to be sponsored and proposed for voting. The bill would amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to eliminate the Election Assistance Commission.

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HAVA was a response to the troubles encountered in various voting systems during the 2000 election. The EAC, established as part of the act, certifies voting systems, creates (voluntary) guidelines and audits programs funded through HAVA.

Now, the EAC isn’t exactly the pride and joy of our electoral system. In fact, for years it didn’t even have a quorum with which to address various voting system issues. Perhaps this long-term neglect is also what led to lax security practices that allowed the EAC itself to be hacked last year. At any rate, it’s back in action now — possibly just in time to be eliminated.

It’s not the first time this has been proposed — not even the second. Republicans, including the current chairman of the Committee that okayed HR 634, Congressman Gregg Harper (R-Miss.), say that the EAC was meant to be a temporary measure, that its responsibilities can be handled by the Federal Election Commission and that shutting it down will save $33 million per year.

There’s something to these arguments, of course, but it seems like extraordinarily bad timing to kill the EAC immediately after an election marred by allegations of fake voting, hacks and other improprieties. The Department of Homeland Security just last month even designated election systems as “critical infrastructure” and will be helping secure them — mainly in a physical sense, though.

Commission Chair Thomas Hicks defended the EAC in a statement:

Efforts to dismantle the Election Assistance Commission are seriously out of step with the current U.S. election landscape. At a time when the Department of Homeland Security has designated election systems as part of the country’s critical infrastructure, election officials face cybersecurity threats, our nation’s voting machinery is aging and there are accusations of election irregularities, the EAC is the only federal agency bridging the gap between federal guidance and the needs of state and local election officials.

A letter signed by 38 organizations (PDF), including the NAACP and League of Women Voters, opposed HR 634 and another that would remove public funding of elections. “The presidential public financing system and the EAC are important components of an honest and fair election system that suffer from congressional neglect and gridlock, not from any inherent flaw.”

Democrats wrote to the House Committee to share their views in like manner:

Expanding the FEC’s mandate to include the testing and verification of our nation’s voting procedures confuses the mission of the FEC and may lead to troubling conflicts of interest. It is also important to note that the FEC has for years been hobbled by its partisan construction. Recognizing this, it seems foolish — or worse, cynical — to layer even more responsibilities on the strained FEC.

The vast majority of Americans want to improve our institutions of democracy. Eliminating the Presidential public financing system and terminating the Election Administration Commission would represent an enormous step in the wrong direction.

HR 634 is still in the earliest stages of becoming law, but similar bills have passed the House before and there are even fewer in Congress now who would oppose this untimely proposal.