Attorney Abigial Shaine, Former Assistant General Counsel of the Federal Election Commission will give a talk, FEC - Designed to Fail? on May 14, 2024 at 7 p.m. at Memorial Hall in Townsend, MA . Who is surprised that Congress designed the agency that governs campaign finance to fail? Created in 1974 in the wake of the campaign funding abuses uncovered during Watergate, the FEC has six Commissioners. No more than three can be from any one party, but it takes four Commissioners for the FEC to take any formal action. As a result, the Commission rarely takes action in controversial, but important cases. With, for example, a billion dollars having poured into the 2020 election cycle, what could possibly go wrong?