Legislation introduced to eliminate the EAC

As noted in today’s Electionline, legislation has been introduced to eliminate the EAC.

The full text of the bill is here: HR672. I’ll try to look more carefully at this over the next week or two, but at first blush, I think it transfers the NVRA and UOCAVA reporting requirements to the Federal Election Commission and VVSG and certification to NIST.

My own quick reaction is that the EAVS (NVRA, UOCAVA, and the Election Day Survey) are invaluable and need to continue in some fashion.  Whether the EAC or some agency ends up administering these, I’d prefer that they be contracted out to an academic institution, following the very successful National Election Study and General Social Survey models.