American Civil Liberties Union

The U.S. Election Assistance Commission was established by the Help America Vote Act of 2002. The Commission serves as a national clearinghouse and resource for information and review of procedures relating to the administration of Federal elections.

Specifically, HAVA was enacted to "establish a program to provide funds to States to replace punch card voting systems, to establish the Election Assistance Commission to assist in the administration of Federal elections and to otherwise provide assistance with the administration of certain Federal election laws and programs, to establish minimum election administration standards for States and units of local government with responsibility for the administration of Federal elections, and for other purposes."

In April 2005, the EAC generated "Proposed Voluntary Guidance on Implementation of Statewide Voter Registration Lists," a HAVA requirement for states, and solicited public comments on the guidance. That guidance failed to provide states with sufficient direction as to how they should protect voters' rights as they implement statewide database systems, specifically as the guidance related to the removal of voters from the statewide voter lists.

Accordingly, the ACLU submitted comments noting that in order to prevent the egregious errors made by state officials in recent elections, notably in Florida in both 2000 and 2004, mistakes that resulted in the disfranchisement of thousands of eligible voters, states must take certain steps as they implement their HAVA-mandated centralized computerized voter lists, some of which will be keyed to the state's specific disfranchisement policy.