Senate Rules Committee Hearing Followup

[Image via webcast screenshot courtesy of Senate Rules Committee]

Just a quick review of yesterday’s Senate Rules Committee hearing to hear testimony from the co-chairs of the Presidential Commission on Election Administration and conduct a business hearing on two nominations to the Election Assistance Commission:

• + The EAC portion of the hearing did not occur – at least not in the hearing room; Chairman Charles Schumer (D-NY) said that the business meeting to consider those nominations would take place “off the floor” later in the day, but there appears to be no evidence in yesterday’s Congressional Record that the meeting took place;
• + The hearing itself was attended by only four Senators – Schumer, ranking member Pat Roberts (R-KS), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Angus King (I-ME);
• + Overall, the hearing was cordial and co-chairs Robert Bauer and Ben Ginsberg had the opportunity to discuss the PCEA report and answer Senators’ questions about its impact on election policy going forward;
• + The questions from Senators were interesting – in particular, Sen. Roberts, who made sure to get the co-chairs on the record that they had found no evidence of deliberate partisan attempts to create long lines or disenfranchise voters on Election Day – perhaps in an effort to answer charges that some new election laws were enacted with those in mind. He also repeatedly cited a 2004 Roll Call article by Norm Ornstein saying that early voting is “toxic” in large doses – continuing the critique in conservative circles of the PCEA’s endorsement of expanded early voting;
• + Sen. Klobuchar, for her part, emphasized her belief that same-day registration laws like those in Minnesota have a positive effect on turnout, noting that she is co-sponsoring a bill to enact it at the federal level; and
• + Sen. King had the line of the day in my view – in support of the notion of better data collection, he noted the oft-repeated phrase calling states “laboratories of democracy”, but observed that while it might be true, “nobody reads the lab reports”.

The “big news” of the day was actually a confirmation of what was already apparent: that neither co-chair believes the EAC can help resolve the “impending crisis” in voting technology. Ginsberg told the committee that he thought the states were the right place for voting equipment testing and certification to occur (a return to the status quo pre-HAVA). Bauer said that while he thought a fully-functional EAC could handle the job, current political realities are preventing that from happening. What, if any, impact that has on the nominations or the future of the agency remains to be seen.

All in all, an informative and largely uneventful hearing – though it confirms for me that efforts to implement the PCEA’s recommendations are almost certainly going have to occur outside the federal government.