Caroline Hunter, a long-serving Republican appointee to the Federal Election Commission, announced her resignation Friday, leaving the panel without a four-person quorum to conduct business once again just months before the November election.
The agency had just regained its voting quorum this month, with the swearing in of a new GOP commissioner after the longest period in the agency’s history without the four votes necessary to regulate and enforce federal campaign finance laws.
Now, in the face of a mounting backlog of complaints and requests for guidance in an election year, the commission will not have enough votes to do its official work.
Hunter, who has sided with her Republican colleagues on the panel in favor of less regulation on campaign finance, informed the White House that she plans to step down July 3, according to the letter. Her departure was first reported by Politico.