GOP hypocrisy on election aid
ONE WOULD imagine that, with President Trump and other Republicans questioning the integrity of the nation’s election systems, Congress would create an agency to help state and local officials run clean and efficient polls. In fact, the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) already exists. At least for the moment: Despite all the GOP rhetoric about flawed elections, a GOP House committee voted along party lines last week to kill the commission.
Created in response to the 2000 presidential election’s recount controversy, the EAC has since diligently provided grants and other aid to state and local election officials to help them improve often archaic voting equipment and procedures.
But House Administration Committee Chairman Gregg Harper (R-Miss.) argues that the EAC has outlived its usefulness, because it has finished distributing the funds that the 2002 Help America Vote Act set aside to help local election officials modernize. Republicans also point out that the National Association of Secretaries of State — representing chief state election officials across the country — has long called for dissolving the EAC.
They are wrong, and it is a bad idea. The EAC does more than simply distribute grant funding. It performs a variety of small but important tasks, such as testing and certifying voting equipment, which help states pick reliable machines; formatting voter registration forms; and translating voter instructions into various languages. It is a vital clearinghouse for information about common election problems and effective ways they have been addressed. With lots of voting equipment requiring replacement across the country, these functions are as essential as ever.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/gop-hypocrisy-on-election-aid/2017/02/12/9aeea6cc-ef12-11e6-9662-6eedf1627882_story.html?utm_term=.1da74a3a3f1b&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1
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