Found this old news story about Wes Kliner, Jr., Vice Chair of the EAC Board of Advisors:
A former state and county election commissioner has drafted a bill that would restrict the political activity of election commissioners, saying he wants to ensure no appearances of impropriety.
"We need to raise the bar given the current climate we have in some quarters of mistrust in the electoral process," said Republican Wes Kliner of Ooltewah, a former Hamilton County election commissioner.
Mr. Kliner, who wrote the bill, once served on a political campaign while he was an election commissioner in Hamilton County.
The bill stipulates that a state or country election commissioner could not serve in a leadership or management role in a political party or campaign. The legislation also would bar an election commissioner from making a "public endorsement" of a candidate or letting his or her name be used in an endorsement capacity by a campaign.
The bill states that violation "subjects the member to immediate removal from office by majority vote of the state election commission."
Some Hamilton County election commissioners have held leadership roles in political campaigns while also serving on the local body. Bart Quinn, a GOP election commissioner, directed two state legislative campaigns of Republican Bo Watson, now a state senator from Hixson. Mike Walden, a Republican election commissioner, served as campaign treasurer for the unsuccessful re-election bid of then-Sheriff John Cupp.
Commissioner Karen Lee, a Democrat, is the daughter of state Rep. JoAnne Favors, D-Chattanooga.
All three said Wednesday they do not see any appearance of impropriety by serving on the election commission with their political links. Mr. Walden said he recused himself from election commission votes involving the sheriff's race, and Mr. Quinn said he would have done the same had any votes come up involving Sen. Watson's race.
In so many instances, the people who oppose separating politicians from the fair elections process are the same people who insist that voter rolls are being stacked by a loose consortium of mischievous citizens and devious political operatives. Then those people get put on the EAC.
And the problem with bipartisan commissions like the EAC is that, because of the nature of the issue at hand, they are de facto stacked by one pool of representatives whose political sires are extremely wedded to one finding (in this case, the existence of voter fraud) and by another pool that (for a variety of easons) has a much less extreme bias. The result is a massive tilt in partisanship.
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