President Trump has fired all remaining commissioners from the US Election Assistance Commission, leaving the country’s only federal agency dedicated to election administration unable to function months before the midterms, prompting accusations from Democrats that the move is designed to “rig” the vote.
Donald Trump has been accused of attempting to manipulate the upcoming US midterm elections after dismissing the final three members of the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), an independent federal agency responsible for supporting election administration nationwide. The move leaves the bipartisan body without a quorum, meaning it can no longer take any formal action, at a moment when election officials across the country are preparing for the midterms. Democratic lawmakers and secretaries of state have condemned the decision as reckless, while legal scholars question whether the president has the authority to remove commissioners from an agency Congress deliberately structured around an even partisan split.
Who Was Removed and How
The commission’s two Democratic members, Thomas Hicks and Benjamin Hovland, were informed by email on Thursday that their positions had been terminated with immediate effect, according to people familiar with the matter. Its sole remaining Republican commissioner, Christy McCormick, was pressured into resigning rather than being dismissed outright. A fourth seat on the commission had already been vacant since Republican commissioner Donald Palmer departed earlier this year to join the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
The White House has defended the dismissals, arguing the president holds the authority to remove officials it considers insufficiently committed to securing elections, and pointing to a recent Supreme Court ruling that expanded presidential power over certain independent federal agencies. However, election law scholars note that whether this ruling extends to a body like the EAC, which Congress specifically designed with an even partisan balance, remains legally untested.
What the EAC Actually Does
Established under the Help America Vote Act of 2002 in the aftermath of the disputed 2000 presidential election, the EAC does not run elections directly. Instead, it certifies voting machines against federal standards, distributes federal election security grants, maintains the national mail voter registration form, and provides guidance to state and local election officials. With no sitting commissioners, the agency is now unable to formally carry out any of these functions.
Hovland, one of the ousted commissioners, told NBC News the agency had played a valuable role helping states with limited resources share best practices, and warned that its absence could lead to real administrative errors as the midterms approach. “When you’re asking more and more of people without giving them the necessary resources, you know, mistakes happen,” he said. “It feels much more like a death-of-1,000-cuts situation than there’s one particular thing that you’re concerned about.”
Democratic Backlash
Senior Democrats have voiced alarm over the dismissals and vowed to challenge the administration’s broader push to expand federal involvement in elections, including its continued backing of the Save America Act, which would introduce new voting restrictions. Senator Mark Warner of Virginia said the purge “should concern every American … that demands an immediate explanation,” while Arizona’s Democratic secretary of state, Adrian Fontes, accused the administration of deliberately manufacturing chaos for election officials across the country.
Cisco Aguilar, Nevada’s Democratic secretary of state and chair of the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State, described the firings as “incredibly irresponsible.” In a statement, he said: “The EAC plays a critical role in supporting state and local election officials, and it will again fall on secretaries of state and other election administrators to fill the gap. From cutting funding for cybersecurity to launching baseless investigations, this pattern of behavior from the Trump administration makes it harder for our election officials to do their work and does nothing to make elections more secure.”
What Comes Next
Election officials and Democratic administrators have warned the dismissals could disrupt preparations ahead of the midterms by delaying funding decisions, voting system certifications and other routine administrative work typically overseen by the commission. The legality of the dismissals is expected to face legal challenges in the coming weeks, with courts likely to focus on whether the president has the constitutional authority to remove commissioners from an independent, bipartisan agency established by Congress.
