BUDGET/HOUSE OF REPS/VOTER FRAUD: “House Republicans are seeking to defund the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, the sole federal agency that exclusively works to ensure the voting process is secure, as part of proposed federal budget cuts.
The defunding move comes as the EAC is working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to examine an attack late last year on the agency’s computer systems by a Russian-speaking hacker.
House Republicans say the EAC no longer is necessary and that the Federal Election Commission could bear its responsibilities. They also say the agency’s work duplicates efforts at the Department of Homeland Security and FBI and that it improperly interferes in the right of states to conduct their elections.
‘People supporting the EAC are quite frankly proponents for a greater federal role in our elections,’ said Rep. Tom Graves (R., Ga.) at a June committee hearing on the proposal to eliminate the agency. ‘States themselves, they’re responsible for all the elections. We do not have a federally run election system.’
However, Democrats have said Russian meddling in the 2016 election has boosted the importance of the EAC. The agency helps train local officials on such tasks as recruiting poll workers and, during last year’s campaign, distributed memos keeping election officials apprised on potential vulnerabilities in voting systems.”
-Erica Orden and Byron Tau, “GOP Seeks to Close Federal Election Agency,” The Wall Street Journal online, July 17, 2017 05:00pm