Departing Election Commissioner: Dysfunction and Deadlock at the FEC

Outgoing and former chairwoman of the Federal Elections Commission Ann Ravel accuses the three Republicans on the board of "working to keep the public in the dark," she wrote in a column for The New York Times.

Ravel, who announced Sunday she plans to resign before her term is up, said she has grown too frustrated with the inability of the six-member commission — three Democrats, three Republicans — to perform its charter, resulting in $800 million in dark money since the Citizens United decision in 2010 to "infect our elections," she wrote.

"Unfortunately, a controlling bloc of three Republican commissioners who are ideologically opposed to the FEC's purpose regularly ignores violations or drastically reduces penalties," Ravel wrote in the Times.

"So what we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark," Ravel wrote.

Writing that the other five members' tenures are up — they serve on "holdover status" — Ravel says it's up to President Donald Trump to appoint a commission that believes in the mission and will enforce the law.

"Only then will our country be protected from the scandalous federal inaction that we now see," Ravel concludes.

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