Camden Kelliher ’21 Appointed as General Counsel of the Election Assistance Commission
William & Mary Law is proud to report that the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) unanimously voted to appoint William & Mary Election Law Society alum Camden Kelliher ’21 as the agency’s General Counsel on December 10, 2024. The vote took place during the EAC’s 2024 Post-Election Hearing at the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s Ballot Processing Center in City of Industry, California.
As EAC Chairman Ben Hovland, Vice Chairman Donald Palmer, Commissioner Thomas Hicks, and Commissioner Christy McCormick noted in a joint statement accompanying his appointment, Kelliher’s “legal expertise became especially evident while serving as Acting General Counsel in the 2024 election year.”
In his tenure as Acting General Counsel, Kelliher provided legal guidance to the agency on topics ranging from Help America Vote Act (HAVA) compliance to authorizing communications to respond to AI-generated disinformation. He also provided advice to EAC Advisory Boards and assisted in the internal restructuring of the Commission.
“Mr. Kelliher continues to stay ahead of the evolving election landscape, and the EAC is grateful to have him in this new role,” the EAC officials said.
Kelliher earned a B.A. from Temple University and a J.D. and Master’s in Public Policy from William & Mary Law School. At William & Mary he served as an Election Law Fellow and was a Thomas Jefferson Scholar with the National Center for State Courts.
As an Election Law Fellow, Kelliher assisted Professor Rebecca Green, Associate Professor of Law and Co-Director of William & Mary Law’s Election Law Program (ELP), on research involving state election law topics, including working on the ELP’s Election Law Manual and ongoing state election law eBenchbook project. Kelliher also served as editor-in-chief of the Law School’s State of Elections Blog.
During law school, Kelliher spent the summer of 2018 in Indonesia conducting research on local elections across the country and the eventual synchronization of those elections. Working with both Andalas University staff and judges from the Indonesian Constitutional Court, Kelliher published a manuscript in the Election Law Journal on his findings.
In Spring 2020, as the country coped with running an election in a pandemic, Kelliher joined the EAC’s Office of General Counsel as an intern, mainly to assist with the agency’s FOIA backlog. As a joint-degree student, he was able to stay on with the EAC through his final, fourth, year of law school. After graduation, he served as Law Clerk for the Office of the General Counsel and quickly rose up the ranks.
“Camden’s rapid rise at the EAC came as no surprise,” Professor Green said. “He is enormously capable. I am very proud of what he has accomplished. Camden took advantage of every opportunity during law school to amass election law expertise. He joins many William & Mary Election Law Society alums making important contributions to the field."
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Congress established the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) in 2002 when it passed the Help America Vote Act. The EAC is an independent, bipartisan commission charged with ensuring secure, accurate, and accessible elections by developing guidance to meet HAVA requirements, adopting voluntary voting system guidelines, and serving as a national clearinghouse of information on election administration. The EAC also accredits testing laboratories and certifies voting systems, as well as administers the use of HAVA funds. For more information, visit www.eac.gov.