Thursday, January 23, 2014

Initial RNLA Response to the Report of the President's Commission on Election Administration

The RNLA is currently reviewing and analyzing the Report of the Recommendations of the Presidential Commission on Election Administration released yesterday.  The RNLA intends to utilize the unique and broad experience of its members to determine the merits of the Commissions various recommendations. 

A few initial observations:

*  We applaud the recommendations to “expanded state collaboration in improving the accuracy of voter lists.” 

*  We have long saluted Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach for his efforts in this regard and we are glad to see that even Democrats such as Robert Bauer agree.  However, as we have learned from the failures to meet the Help America Vote Act requirements all too often Democrats play “lip service” to improving the accuracy of voting lists but have no interest in actually improving voter lists. 

* We have concerns about the one size fits all nature of these proposals.  As House Administration Committee Chair and former Michigan Secretary of State Congresswoman Candice Miller stated in response to the report: “The administration of elections is inherently a state function so I do not believe that new one-size-fits-all Washington mandates would be of assistance.”

*  An example of this occurred in the briefing on the report’s release yesterday at George Washington University when Mr. Bauer talked about how they heard only “bipartisan unanimous support for expanding early voting.”  Then in response to a question, Mr. Bauer discussed the vehement opposition to any early voting of Democrat New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner.  So much for unanimous support.


In the coming weeks, RNLA will have a detailed response to this over 100 page document.  

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