On August 7, U.S. Senators Russell Feingold and John McCain introduced S.1648. It would replace the Federal Election Commission with a Federal Election Administration. The new body would have three members. All three would need to have different party affiliations than any of the others. Section 352(a) of the bill says, “(a) In General — the Administration shall be composed of 3 members, 1 of whom shall serve as the Chair. No member of the Administration shall — (1) be affiliated with the same political party as any other member of the Administration; or (2) have been affiliated with the same political party as any other member of the Administration at any time during the 5-year period ending on the date on which such individual is nominated to be a member of the Administration.”

One difficulty is that 21 states have no such concept as registration by political party, so whether someone is “affiliated” with any particular party is ambiguous.

The bill has no other co-sponsors so far, and no companion in the U.S. House. Thanks to Damon Eris of Poli-Tea for this news, and also to ElectionLawBlog.