After tapping two of the nation’s pre-eminent election lawyers to lead an effort to study the way Americans vote, President Obama on Tuesday announced his intention to appoint eight additional members to a presidential commission designed to improve the electoral process after voters faced long lines and other obstacles in last year’s elections.
“As I said in my State of the Union Address, when any American, no matter where they live or what their party, is denied that right simply because too many obstacles stand in their way, we are betraying our ideals,†Mr. Obama said in a statement. “We have an obligation to ensure that all eligible voters have the opportunity to cast their ballots without unwarranted obstructions or unnecessary delay.â€
Mr. Obama, who announced in February that Robert F. Bauer, the president’s former lawyer and White House counsel, and Benjamin L. Ginsberg, a Republican lawyer who worked for Mitt Romney, would be co-chairmen of the panel, said on Tuesday that he would round out the panel with representatives from business, public servants and state election officials.
Among those he intends to appoint are Brian Britton, vice president of global park operations and initiatives at Walt Disney World, and Joe Echevarria, chief executive of the accounting firm Deloitte.
The remaining members are expected to be Trey Grayson, a Republican who lost to Senator Rand Paul in the 2010 Kentucky Senate primary and now directs the Institute of Politics at Harvard University; Larry Lomax, the registrar in Clark County, Nev.; Michele Coleman Mayes, the vice president, general counsel and secretary at the New York Public Library; Ann McGeehan, a lawyer for the Texas County and District Retirement System; Tammy Patrick, a federal compliance officer for the elections department in Maricopa County, Ariz.; and Christopher M. Thomas, the elections director in Michigan.
The commission will begin meeting in June and is expected to produce a report six months later. It is tasked with identifying “nonpartisan ways to shorten lines at polling places, promote the efficient conduct of elections and provide better access to the polls for all voters,†the announcement said.
The executive order creating the commission pointed to problems faced by members of the military, overseas voters, voters with disabilities and voters with limited English proficiency and special needs. It listed the training of poll workers, issues with polling centers and voting machines, the management of voter rolls, ballot simplicity and overseas balloting among several suggested areas of study.
Voting rights advocates have welcomed the creation of the panel, spurred by long lines and voting problems in the 2012 elections that experts say disproportionately affected poor and minority voters, who are traditionally Democratic constituencies. But the groups are tempering their expectations until they see whether the panel is effective.
“The Presidential Commission on Election Administration can help get to the bottom of the problems that made it very difficult for some voters to cast their ballot in the last election,†Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, said in a statement after the president’s announcement. “I urge the members of this nonpartisan panel to apply their impressive experience in running elections and running businesses to determining how to make it easier for every eligible citizen to vote.â€
