U.S. Election Assistance Commission

WASHINGTON – Caroline Hunter and Rosemary Rodriguez are the newest members to serve on the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) after being nominated by the President and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

“We are pleased to have Caroline Hunter and Rosemary Rodriguez joining us as members of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission,” said Chair Donetta Davidson. “They bring an invaluable array of skill and experience to EAC, which will serve us well as we work to make sure our voting systems are accurate and reliable and that all votes are counted accurately.”

Hunter and Rodriguez were nominated to EAC by President Bush last year and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on February 15, 2007. Hunter will serve until Hunter will serve until December 12, 2009. She replaces Paul DeGregorio, who served after the expiration of his two-year term until a successor was chosen. Rodriguez will serve until December 12, 2007, filling the remaining term of Ray Martinez, who resigned in August 2006.

Caroline Hunter comes to EAC having recently served as deputy director of the White House Office of Public Liaison from January to October 2006. From 2005 to 2006, she served as executive officer at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman. Prior to that, from 2001 to 2005 she was associate counsel and then deputy counsel at the Republican National Committee where she provided guidance on Election Law and the implementation of the Help America Vote Act.

Rosemary Rodriguez comes to EAC after three years on the Denver, Colorado City Council, where she served as its president from 2005 to 2006. She was director of Boards and Commissions for the mayor's office from 2002 to 2003 and a clerk and recorder for the City and County of Denver from 1997 to 2002. In 1997 she was acting director of the Denver Election Commission where she supervised city elections. She has been active in numerous grass roots civic and voter advocacy organizations, including the Colorado Voter Initiative where she co-chaired a statewide initiative to allow Election Day voter registration. She was also a co-founder and chair of Latinos Vote, a voter registration project to register Latino voters and provide non-partisan election information to the Latino community.

EAC is an independent bipartisan commission created by the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA). It is charged with administering payments to states and developing guidance to meet HAVA requirements, implementing election administration improvements, adopting voluntary voting system guidelines, accrediting voting system test laboratories and certifying voting equipment and serving as a national clearinghouse and resource of information regarding election administration. The four EAC commissioners are Donetta Davidson, chair; Rosemary Rodriguez, Caroline Hunter and Gracia Hillman.

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