Popular Vote

When DeForest Soaries Jr. stepped in to chair the first-ever federal agency devoted to fixing the nation's problem-plagued election system, he felt as though he'd "been asked to make bricks without straw." It's easy to see why. The Election Assistance Commission, created by the 2002 Help America Vote Act, was installed 10 months behind schedule with a paltry budget of $1.2 million for this fiscal year.

He and his fellow commissioners were floored when they learned how little money they'd have. After all, the law had authorized as much as $10 million for the commission, which serves as a clearinghouse for election information and guidelines. The commission's most important jobs are setting voting machine standards and doling out federal grants to the states. As the first chairman, Soaries, 53, faced some immediate, practical hurdles. The first was that fully half the agency's starting budget was eaten up by the salaries of the four commissioners-two Republicans and two Democrats. (Soaries is a Republican.)

That left the commission with an awkward choice between renting office space and hiring staff. Not to mention the commission is required to publish in the Federal Register the election administration plans that states submit for federal grants. "We could have taken all the money that we had left after we paid our salaries, published the states' plans, and had no money left for anything," Soaries recalls.

He convinced the General Services Administration to waive the rent and to foot the bill for publishing the states' plans in the Federal Register. He also arranged to borrow temporary staff from other agencies. Even now, the commission is functioning with only a handful of stalwarts; it just hired a general counsel in late August and still is hunting for a communications director. By all accounts, it's been a bumpy start. "I wouldn't have been a bit surprised to see some of them in jeans and painting the walls once they got the office space," says Kimball Brace, president of Election Data Services, a political consulting firm that's helping the commission gather voting information.

Soaries, who served as New Jersey's secretary of state from 1999 to 2002, has smoothed over the rough edges with charm, good humor and a gift for oratory. As senior pastor of a 7,000-member Baptist church in New Jersey, he managed a budget larger than the commission's, and championed a host of low-income housing, foster-care and adoption initiatives. "I think the chairman is just absolutely the right person at the right time to serve as chairman this first year," says Commissioner Gracia Hillman, a Democrat, who was president and chief executive officer of the WorldSpace Foundation, now First Voice International, a Washington- based nonprofit that uses satellite technology to deliver multimedia education programs to Africa and Asia.

Ironically, Soaries and his colleagues find themselves in the same tight spot as the cash-strapped state and county officials who are struggling to manage the nation's dilapidated, decentralized election system. The contested 2000 presidential election, with its notorious hanging chads in Florida, brought to light myriad problems with the nation's neglected voting system. "Very few people, I think, before Florida, really understood how patchwork the system is," says Soaries. "And, in fact, there is no system. There is no national system for voting. Even in states, you have tremendous diversity."

The law that created the commission was supposed to fix all that with $3.9 billion over three years to help states replace outmoded voting machines, clean up error-ridden voter registration databases, train and recruit poll workers, and ease ballot access. But partisan disputes on Capitol Hill postponed enactment until a full two years after the chaotic 2000 election. And though it set a February 2003 deadline for the commission's installation, officials at the White House and in Congress failed to do so until December 2003-10 months behind schedule and with precious little time to make an impact before this year's Nov. 2 elections. Soaries has responded with initiatives that he argues could make a big difference on Election Day and are basically cost-free. His first move was to woo the news media and to elevate the commission's profile by using it as a bully pulpit.

In one instance, this backfired. Soaries stirred up a ruckus over terrorism and voting. He wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and to congressional leaders in July, raising questions about the nation's voting plans in the event of a terrorist attack. Democrats accused him of a partisan bid to scare voters, and editorial writers were quick to pile on. Soaries hurriedly issued a statement saying, "There are no circumstances that could justify the postponement or cancellation of a presidential election in the United States." But he now charges: "We were sandbagged." Those who know Soaries say that far from being partisan, he has set a collegial and nonpolitical tone.

In addition, Soaries has championed a National Poll Worker Initiative to help states cope with a staffing shortage that has reached crisis proportions. He has called on corporate CEOs to release employees to work the polls on Election Day, much as they do for jury duty. He also has recruited poll workers on campuses and among public employees. "The media is primarily interested in the voting device," he noted at a Sept. 13 commission meeting. "But somebody's got to get up at four o'clock in the morning on Election Day and get to the polling place if the device is going to be used."

Soaries has put together a "Best Practices Tool Kit" for state and local officials that offers tips and common-sense recommendations on running elections. "It begins to create a culture of uniformity-uniformity not so much in practice, but in expectations," he says.

In response to growing concerns about the security of touch-screen voting machines, Soaries convinced voting machine vendors to register their software at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Should accusations of hacking or tampering arise, a machine's software can be checked against a "clean" copy of its technological footprint at NIST. "This is a good example of something that we've done that didn't really cost money, but increased security and reliability, nationally," Soaries says.

He has traveled around the country meeting with state and local election officials and giving speeches that tend to leave a lasting impression. "He certainly uses his experience in the pulpit to get people's attention, and to uplift people," says Denise Lamb, president of the National Association of State Election Directors.

Of course, high-profile public statements and flashy education programs can only go so far. Soaries acknowledges that one of the panel's most important mandates-to establish national standards for voting machines-will take time, research and money. In partnership with NIST, the commission has begun the process. But though it looks like lawmakers might cough up as much as $10 million for the EAC's operating budget in fiscal 2005, the outlook is not good for the additional $10 million in research money Soaries and other officials requested.

Commissioners already are feeling strapped, given that a continuing appropriations resolution approved on Capitol Hill included only $1 million to carry the EAC from Oct. 1 through Nov. 20. Commissioners had said they would need far more to operate effectively during that period. "You can fudge a public hearing," says Soaries. "You can use the bully pulpit to inspire people to do things. You can use the news media to help spread the word. But to do research costs money, flat out."

Given his limited resources, Soaries has made a surprising impact in just a few months. But to help states run elections more smoothly, he'll need better materials. Bricks without straw don't hold up in the long run.