1 

PROPOSED NOTICE AND PUBLIC COMMENT POLICY 

I. PURPOSE 

The purpose of this policy is to provide effective notice for a period of public comment 

on all policies being considered for adoption by the United States Election Assistance 

Commission (EAC), which are not subject to notice and comment under any federal 

statute. From time to time, EAC issues advisories, manuals, procedures, regulations and 

rules, which impact outside parties. Some of these policies and rules must be adopted 

after a period of public comment pursuant to the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) or 

other statutes, such as the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) or the National Voter 

Registration Act (NVRA). Other policies do not require such public participation; 

however, EAC is committed to make all of its policy making activities open and 

transparent. 

EAC believes that public involvement in the policy process is the best way to develop 

sound policy and encourage public understanding and participation in agency activities. 

As such, EAC desires to require notice and comment for all of its advisories, manuals, 

procedures, regulations and rules that may impact outside parties. To that end, this policy 

requires EAC to provide the public an opportunity to comment on any proposed policy or 

rule of general applicability (those impacting outside parties), even when such public 

comment is not otherwise required by law. 

This policy further outlines the roles, responsibilities and procedures for this process to 

assure that the public has effective notice and the ability to submit timely and meaningful 

comment on proposed EAC policies and rules. 

II. DEFINITIONS 

A. “Outside Party” means any other government entity, corporation, nonprofit association, or individual other than EAC. Outside Party shall not 

include Federal government executive branch or independent agencies. 

B. “Policy of general applicability” is a policy that applies to all relevant 

stakeholders. It is not a particular matter involving a single party that 

addresses a specific case or controversy, such as the resolution of one 

state’s audit, or interpretations issued under the EAC’s Testing and 

Certification and Laboratory Accreditation Programs. Matters of general 

applicability include the following: 

 Program manuals adopted by EAC that impact outside parties, such as 

the testing and certification program manual, the laboratory 
2 

accreditation manual, and grant manuals regarding any of the EAC 

distributed or managed grant programs. 

 Guidance (other than that developed by EAC regarding Sections 301 – 

303 of HAVA), advisories, and advisory opinions related to the 

implementation or administration of HAVA or the National Voter 

Registration Act (NVRA). 

 Other regulations or policies concerning EAC administrative actions 

that impact outside parties. 

C. “Proposed policy or rule”. Any policy, advisory, manual, procedure, 

regulation or rule covered hereunder that the Commission has voted 

affirmatively to post for public comment. 

 

III. ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES 

A. Responsible Program Director. The Responsible Program Director is the EAC 

staff person who is generally responsible for the subject area addressed in a 

proposed policy or rule. The Responsible Program Director shall be responsible 

for preparing notices and assuring that proposed policies and rules for public 

comment are posted in a timely manner. In addition, the Responsible Program 

Director shall be responsible for collecting, analyzing and recommending a 

disposition on all comments received during the comment period. The 

Responsible Program Director shall produce the written summary of all comments 

received, as described above, within 14 days of the close of the comment period. 

The Responsible Program Director will regularly update the commissioners, 

executive director, chief operating officer, general counsel and all other 

appropriate EAC staff on the volume and types of comments that are received 

during the public comment period. 

When a policy or rule is proposed by a Commissioner, the Special Assistant 

assigned to that Commissioner shall assume all responsibilities of the 

Responsible Program Director and will regularly coordinate and share 

information with the executive director, general counsel, chief operating officer 

and the program director generally responsible for the subject area addressed in 

the proposed policy. 

. 

B. Executive Director. The Executive Director shall assign a Responsible 

Program Director when such action is required. The Executive Director may 

approve a public comment period of between 15 and 29 days, under limited 

circumstances and when good cause is demonstrated. The Executive Director 

may approve a waiver for publishing notice in the Federal Register under 

limited circumstances and when good cause is demonstrated. The Executive 

Director may grant an additional reasonable period of time beyond the required 

14-day period for the Responsible Program Director to produce a written 

summary report of all comments received. 
3 

C. General Counsel. The Office of the General Counsel shall provide counsel 

upon request to the Responsible Program Director, the Executive Director, or 

any Commissioner regarding the proposed policy or rule, posting of the 

document for effective notice and comment, review and disposition of any 

comment received, and or any interpretation of this policy. 

IV. APPLICABILITY 

Under this policy, any advisory, manual, procedure, regulation and rule of general 

applicability, which impacts outside parties (i.e. is not strictly limited to the 

internal operations of EAC), must be posted for notice and public comment. This 

policy applies even when neither the APA nor HAVA or NVRA require that a 

proposed policy or rule is subject to notice and public comment prior to adoption. 

For example, the APA requires that final rules of general applicability are 

published to provide notice to the public, but does not require that the agency take 

or receive comments on that rule. In this example, EAC’s manual on its testing 

and certification program would not be required to be posted for notice and public 

comment by the APA. However, under this policy, a manual, which would have 

an impact on outside parties, must be posted for notice and public comment. 

 

This policy does not apply to circumstances wherein statutes such as APA or 

HAVA require notice and public comment prior to adoption of the guidance, 

regulation, rule, or policy statement. For example, the APA requires that 

regulations promulgated pursuant to the NVRA are posted for notice and public 

comment. Likewise, HAVA requires that guidance developed regarding Sections 

301-303 of HAVA, as well as the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines, are 

subject to notice and public comment. 

V. EFFECTIVE AND SUFFICIENT NOTICE 

A. Comment Period. At a minimum, EAC will provide a period of public 

comment of no less than 30 days on all policies or rules of general applicability. 

The Responsible Program Director at his/her discretion may extend the period for 

public comment. The comment period on any policy or rule of general 

applicability may not exceed 180 days unless so extended by vote of the 

Commission when good cause is demonstrated for extending the comment period. 

Considerations for extension shall include, but are not limited to the content of the 

proposed policy or rule, the complexity of the proposed policy or rule, and 

intervening circumstances during the comment period. 

EAC recognizes that there may be good cause for the comment period to be less 

than 30 days so that the Commission can respond to a time sensitive matter in a 

timely manner. The Responsible Program Director must request such an 

exception in writing to the Executive Director, justifying the reason for requesting 

that the comment period be less than 30 days. The Executive Director may grant 

such an exception when good cause is demonstrated for reducing the public 

comment period and must do so in writing. Under no circumstance shall the 
4 

period of public comment be less than 15 days. EAC acknowledges that such 

exemptions will be rare occurrences. 

B. Notice to the Public. In order to ensure that members of the public are apprised 

of EAC’s publication of a proposed policy and solicitation for comments on the 

proposed policy, EAC will use the following methods of publication and notice to 

the public: 

• Publishing a notice in the Federal Register notifying the public of the 

proposed policy or rule and soliciting comments by a date certain; and 

• Publishing the proposed rule or policy on the EAC Web site and soliciting 

comments by a date certain; and 

• Sending notice to EAC stakeholders, members of Congress and interested 

members of the media through a weekly email newsletter. 

If the Responsible Program Director determines that publishing notice in the 

Federal Register will result in a comment period of less than 30 days, then he/she 

must request in writing to the Executive Director a waiver of publication of the 

notice in the Federal Register, demonstrating good cause for such a waiver. The 

Executive Director may grant such an exception when good cause is demonstrated 

and must do so in writing. 

 

The Responsible Program Director shall prepare notice of the proposed policy or 

rule and the solicitation for comments, which shall include a summary of the 

proposed action, and cause it to be published in the means identified above. 

Included in this responsibility is the duty to analyze and assign a reasonable 

period for accepting comments within the parameters established by this policy. 

C. Equal Ability to Comment. Under this policy, no proposed policy or 

rule shall be released to any outside party prior to the time that it is posted for 

public comment. If it is determined that a proposed policy was released to a 

outside party prior to the beginning of the public comment period, the comment 

period shall be extended by 30 days in order to allow all members of the public to 

have equal ability to provide comment. 

VI. COLLECTING AND RECEIVING PUBLIC COMMENTS 

For all proposed policies and rules, EAC shall accept comments by email, fax, or 

in hard copy. However, EAC shall encourage members of the public to provide 

comments through an on-line portal on the EAC website or through an EAC 

established centralized comment submission program. Comments, regardless of 

the means of transmission, must be made available to the public as soon as 

practicable after they are received. 
5 

VII. CONSIDERATION OF COMMENTS 

The Responsible Program Director must timely read and consider each and every 

comment submitted during the comment period. In addition, the Responsible 

Program Director shall recommend a disposition for all comments. In the final 

consideration of the proposed policy or rule, the Responsible Program Director 

shall provide a written summary of all comments received, indicating which of 

those comments should be accepted, rejected, or tabled for future consideration. 

The Responsible Program Director shall produce the written summary of all 

comments received, as described above, within 14 days of the close of the 

comment period. The Responsible Program Director may request an extended 

period of a reasonable length of time to complete the summary report. The request 

shall be submitted in writing to the 

Executive Director. The Executive Director may grant such an extension when 

good cause is demonstrated and must do so in writing. 

VIII. ADOPTION OF A RULE OR POLICY OF GENERAL APPLICABILITY 

No proposed rule or policy of general applicability shall be adopted by vote of the EAC 

unless: 

• The proposed rule or policy has been posted for public comment in accordance 

with this policy; and 

• All comments submitted in response to the proposed policy have been reviewed 

and considered; and 

• A vote of three or more Commissioners approves the proposed policy and any 

changes that are recommended by the Responsible Program Director after review 

and consideration of the comments.