Key takeaways:
- Trump dismissed Democratic EAC commissioners Thomas Hicks and Benjamin Hovland, while Republican commissioner Christy McCormick resigned after another Republican had departed earlier this year.
- A White House official told NPR the president has the right to remove officials not aligned with securing elections and cited the Supreme Court’s Slaughter decision.
- The Election Assistance Commission certifies voting systems, accredits testing labs, develops election administration guidelines and maintains the national mail voter registration form.
President Donald Trump has removed the remaining members of the bipartisan U.S. Election Assistance Commission, leaving the federal agency that supports state and local election officials without commissioners just months before the midterm elections.
An association of state election officials notified its members Thursday of the dismissals, NPR reported. The changes affected the three remaining commissioners on the four-member panel: Democratic commissioners Thomas Hicks and Benjamin Hovland were terminated, while Republican commissioner Christy McCormick resigned. Another Republican commissioner, Don Palmer, had already left earlier this year.
All three remaining commissioners had been confirmed unanimously by the Senate.
The White House presidential personnel office notified the two Democratic appointees by email, according to Reuters reporting cited by The Guardian. “On behalf of President Donald J Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as Commissioner of the Election Assistance Commission is terminated, effective immediately. Thank you for your service,” the email said.
A White House official told NPR that the president “reserves the right to remove individuals that may not be totally aligned with the important task of securing America’s elections and ensuring every legal vote is counted. The Slaughter decision gives the President precedence to do so.”
In that case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled late last month that a president has broader authority to remove members of independent federal agencies.
The Election Assistance Commission was created by the Help America Vote Act of 2002 after problems in the 2000 presidential election. The agency certifies voting systems, accredits testing laboratories, develops voluntary guidelines for election administration and serves as a national clearinghouse of information for election officials. It also maintains the national mail voter registration form developed under the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, according to the commission’s website.
The Help America Vote Act says the commission’s four members are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, with no more than two commissioners from the same political party. The law also states that the president can appoint replacements to the commission. It was not immediately clear how Trump plans to proceed.
The removals come after Trump issued a 2025 executive order calling on the commission to add a proof-of-citizenship requirement to the federal voter registration form it maintains. Judges have blocked the order’s main provisions, saying they exceed the president’s constitutional authority, NPR reported.
Democrats and voting rights advocates condemned the dismissals.
“President Trump is trying to dismantle yet another independent guardrail of our democracy designed to keep elections fair and secure,” Sen. Alex Padilla of California and Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, the ranking Democrats on congressional committees with jurisdiction over elections, said in a joint statement. “Purging commissioners just months before the midterm elections and further gutting support for our state and local elections officials is a blatant part of his plan to politicize our elections and enable more unlawful and dangerous election interference.”
Michael Waldman, president and CEO of the Brennan Center for Justice, said the dismissals “are deeply concerning in light of President Trump’s relentless efforts to try to interfere in elections.”
“Congress deliberately structured the Election Assistance Commission as a bipartisan agency to help states administer free, fair, and secure elections,” Waldman said. “These removals leave the agency without leadership and unable to carry out its major responsibilities.”
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes also criticized the move. “It is irresponsible and dangerous that this Administration remains dead set on causing chaos for our election officials across this country,” Fontes said. “This move undermines the integrity of nonpartisan election administration.”
An EAC spokesperson did not respond to NPR’s request for comment. The White House did not immediately respond to The Guardian’s request for comment.
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