Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox still plans to hold a vote on a competing set of proxy access rules in November, even though the SEC likely won’t have a full slate of commissioners.

Cox said he wants the SEC to approve a final nationwide rule on proxy access--the ability of investors to nominate board candidates to appear on corporate proxy statements--before the end of the year. “The commitment we have repeatedly made is to have [a rule] in place,” Cox told reporters on Oct. 12, according to news reports. "The process remains the same.”

Investor advocates and prominent Democratic lawmakers have urged the SEC to hold off voting on proxy access and possible restrictions on shareholder proposals until the agency has a full set of five commissioners. Commissioner Roel Campos left the SEC in September. The commission’s only other Democrat, Annette Nazareth, has announced that she will not seek another term, but she has not disclosed her departure date.

In July, Nazareth and Campos joined with Cox in a 3-2 vote to issue a draft rule to allow shareholder groups with a 5 percent stake to file access bylaw proposals. The two other Republicans on the SEC voted for a draft rule that would bar those proposals. Proxy access advocates and governance observers predict that a commission without full Democratic representation may vote to prohibit proxy access.

After speaking at a conference of the National Association of Corporate Directors on Oct. 16, Rep. Barney Frank told reporters that it would be a “mistake” for the short-handed commission to vote on the issue. Proxy access is “much too important to do without a full commission,” said Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat who chairs the House Committee on Financial Services.

Senator Christopher Dodd, who chairs the Senate Banking Committee, has written to Cox to urge the SEC not to take action until at least one of the two Democratic slots is filled, according to news reports.

Frank has urged the SEC to scrap its two proposals and start over. “Substantially, I think that both proposals have problems,” he said this week.

Asked if he would introduce legislation if the SEC does vote next month to block access, Frank said it was probably too late in the current session of Congress to do that. However, Frank did say he could seek to attach a proxy access amendment to an appropriations bill.

Frank did praise Cox’s efforts to build a consensus on the issue, which has sharply divided companies and investor advocates. In comment letters to the agency, corporate groups warned that proxy access would disrupt board cohesion and lead to “special interest” directors. While investors contend that access would help ensure accountability, they argue that the SEC’s proposed ownership and disclosure requirements for filing an access resolution would be too onerous.

Damon Silvers, associate counsel for the AFL-CIO, said the labor federation has been in contact with Cox to express its views that the agency should not vote on proxy access next month. “Cox is trying to navigate politically treacherous waters,” Silvers told Risk & Governance Weekly. “If Cox does have a vote, I expect that it won’t be on anything meaningful.”