For those of you who haven’t already heard, U.S. Election Assistance Commissioner Ray Martinez announced his resignation today, effective June 30. According to the public announcement of his resignation, he is leaving to return home to Texas and to spend more time with his family. In the past two and a half years, Commissioner Martinez has played an important role at the EAC, and has been a participant in a number of events and public forums where his contributions were outstanding. For example, see his comments at the recent Princeton University event on election reform, where he called for state audits of election administration practices, and for state election officials and vendors to take conflict of interest oaths.

He has been a strong supporter of research on election administration, has always been enthusiastic about the involvement of researchers and academics in the election reform debate, and has been interested in a variety of complex issues of concern (for example, interoperability of statewide voter registration systems). Thad and I will be sorry to see Commissioner Martinez depart the EAC at this important moment in the election reform process, but we will also look forward to working whomever replaces him on the EAC.