U.S. Election Assistance Commission

WASHINGTON – The office of inspector general of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) has issued its findings regarding an EAC research project about vote fraud and voter intimidation. The report stated that there was “no evidence to support allegations that the changes were made to the report due to improper reasons or political motivations.” The inspector general’s review was requested unanimously by the commission, and it is available at www.eac.gov.

An initial review of the inspector general’s report shows that the scrutiny surrounding these research projects was the result of inadequate internal procedures. The EAC takes full responsibility for these shortfalls. We are already taking steps to implement policies and procedures to ensure that we not only produce accurate reports, but that we are also able to clearly demonstrate a thorough vetting and validation process so the public will have confidence in the reports issued by the EAC. The commission will bring in expertise in federal contracting procedures, and has already reorganized the internal structure to improve efficiency, including assigning program area experts to perform contract oversight of the projects in their respective areas of expertise.

The EAC is not surprised that the review concluded that political motivations did not influence the process. The commission has strongly defended staff as being professional and dedicated federal employees, and that is why the commission voted unanimously in June 2007 to release and post more than 40,000 pages of documents, emails and related material, which are available in the FOIA Reading Room.

The EAC recognizes that some election administration topics are difficult and can be divisive. That is why the EAC is making the adoption of internal policies and procedures a top priority to clearly demonstrate the basis for the contents of reports issued by the EAC.

The EAC will make the much needed improvements based on this review as quickly as possible so the commission can focus full time on making sure election officials have the tools they need to conduct accurate, accessible, and secure elections.

BACKGROUND
Vote Fraud and Voter Intimidation
The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) requires the EAC to study vote fraud and voter intimidation. Election Crimes: An Initial Review and Recommendations for Further Study was adopted unanimously by the commission at a public meeting in December, 2006. The EAC’s report was based upon information collected by consultants Tova Wang and Job Serebrov. After reviewing information from the consultants, staff drafted the EAC report. The EAC report identified the consultants and listed all of their recommendations, and the documents they reviewed were attached.

The contracts, awarded in September 2005, tasked the consultants to define the terms “vote fraud” and “voter intimidation” and provide recommendations how to conduct extensive research in the future on these topics. The contract stated that the consultants were responsible for “creating a report summarizing the findings of this preliminary research effort and working group deliberations. This report should include any recommendations for future EAC research resulting from this effort.”

To view the 40,000 pages of documents requested by Congress regarding the vote fraud and voter intimidation research, Congressional correspondence, and the commission’s request to the inspector general regarding the review of these projects, visit the EAC’s electronic FOIA Reading Room.

EAC is an independent bipartisan commission created by HAVA. The commission administers payments to states and develops guidance to meet HAVA requirements, adopts voluntary voting system guidelines, and accredits voting system test laboratories and certifies voting equipment. EAC also serves as a national clearinghouse and resource of information regarding election administration. The four EAC commissioners are Rosemary Rodriguez, chair; Caroline Hunter, vice chair; Gracia Hillman and Donetta Davidson.

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