Since its inception, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) has helped America vote by assisting the nation’s 8,000 election jurisdictions in carrying out successful elections and providing crucial resources for voters.
Essential to this continued effort is the 24 men and women who make up EAC’s staff. While not large in numbers, EAC staff are big in their impact.
Last year, our team used its collective expertise and skills to help the agency achieve a broad spectrum of successful initiatives designed to ensure the accuracy, accessibility and security of elections. In preparation for last year’s federal election, the EAC rolled out a #GamePlan17 campaign that provided a number of products to aid both election officials and voters. This included videos, public meetings, summits, roundtables, tool kits, trainings, major research products and new clearinghouse topic areas. Additionally, the EAC continued to serve as the federal government’s leading source for election administration information and ran the country’s premier voting system testing and certification program.
This year, the EAC launched #Countdown18 ahead of the midterm federal elections. On January 10, the agency hosted an all-day summit to highlight the spectrum of issues including election security, voting accessibility, and how to use election data to improve the voter experience. The agency continued its work to make the data within the Election Administration & Voting Survey (EAVS) more useful for election officials including by producing a data interactive, an election calendar and a series of “Deep Dives” into specific issues within the EAVS data, such as election technology.
In late March, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018 made $380 million available in election security funds the first new appropriations for HAVA grants since FY2010. The EAC worked to make funds available to states as soon as possible so the money could be deployed in meaningful ways to support the 2018 elections. As of early May, eight states had already requested funds.
Our staff continues to create public education materials, organize summits and public forums, and serve as a resource to election officials and voters around the country. In honor of Public Service Recognition Week (May 6-12, 2018), the EAC is proud to highlight and celebrate its staff, and their achievements and dedication to public service.
For more information about Public Service Recognition Week, please visit PSRW.org.