The online news site Raw Story posted an analysis a few weeks ago noting the 600 percent increase in split votes on the Federal Election Commission from 2008 to 2009.

Raw Story includes a table in their article listing FEC votes from 2003 to 2009; I made a quick chart of that data and added in a notation every time a seat changed hands. (The FEC has six commissioners, three Republicans and three Democrats, at all times. Commissioners are appointed by the president and approved by the Senate.)

Click to view full size

The Raw Story article provides a good explanation of the partisan gridlock the FEC experienced in 2008 and why certain recent GOP appointees have led to the uptick in split votes.

Craig Holman, a campaign finance expert at the watchdog group Public Citizen and the original author of the study, explained, “The Federal Election Commission is hopelessly deadlocked, and the caucus of three Republicans really have realized that the best way they can prevent the enforcement of campaign finance laws is just by voting as a bloc to deadlock everything. Without a four-vote margin, the FEC can’t act.”

“At this point we have a dysfunctional FEC,” Holman continued. “It’s an agency that simply does not function anymore.”