DeForest Soaries, the first chairman of the Election Assistance Commission, is resigning saying the government has not shown a commitment to reform.

The commission was created after the 2000 election as part of the Help America Vote Act of 2002. President Bush appointed Soaries, a Baptist minister, to help oversee reform efforts.

"It's bad enough to be working under extremely adverse circumstances, but what throws your thinking into an abyss, as it were, is why you would be doing that when, for instance, you have to beg Congress for money as if the commission was your idea," Soaries said.