§20923 Membership and Appointment

Summary

The President, with the Senate’s OK, must appoint four people to serve on the commission. Before the first appointments and before filling any vacancy, the Senate Majority Leader, the House Speaker, the Senate Minority Leader, and the House Minority Leader each must give the President a candidate recommendation for each vacancy tied to the political party of the Member of Congress involved. Each appointee must have experience running elections or studying elections. All first appointments had to be made no later than 120 days after October 29, 2002. Members normally serve 4-year terms and may be reappointed once. For the first group, the President must name two for 2-year terms and two for 4-year terms, with no more than one person from the same party in each set. Vacancies are filled the same way and replacements serve the remaining term; members stay on until their successor takes office. The commission picks a chair and a vice chair from its members for 1-year terms; they cannot be from the same party, and a member may serve as chair and as vice chair only once each during their appointment. Each member is paid at the rate for Executive Schedule Level IV (section 5315 of title 5). Members may not hold any other job while serving and must end or close such work before they begin.