President Donald Trump removed both Democratic members of the Election Assistance Commission on Friday, leaving the obscure but consequential federal agency without a single sitting commissioner. The White House confirmed the move after VoteBeat first reported the changes, as the Associated Press detailed in its coverage of the action and the legal authority behind it.
Thomas Hicks and Benjamin Hovland, the commission's two Democrats, received notification of their removal via email, signed by Morgan DeWitt Snow, deputy director of presidential personnel in the Executive Office of the President. Republican commissioner Christy McCormick resigned. Former Republican commissioner Donald Palmer had already left his post voluntarily earlier this year.
The result: a four-seat commission, created by Congress in 2002, now sits empty. The EAC distributes federal grants to state and local election offices, oversees the testing and certification of voting systems, and maintains the national voter registration form. With no commissioners in place, the agency's ability to carry out those functions, particularly new grant distributions, faces real uncertainty heading into the 2026 midterm elections.
The White House pointed to the Supreme Court's recent ruling in the Slaughter case as its legal basis. That 6-3 decision held that Trump had wide executive authority to fire political appointees of independent executive agencies. The court's six conservative justices concluded that previous restrictions on presidential removal power violated the Constitution's separation of powers.
The ruling arose from Trump's firing of Rebecca Slaughter, a Federal Trade Commission member, without cause. It gave the administration a broad tool, one it has now used against board members at the National Labor Relations Board, the Merit Systems Protection Board, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and the EAC.
But the Supreme Court drew a line in a separate case. When Trump tried to remove Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve Board, a 5-4 majority ruled he could not fire Fed governors without cause. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined the court's three liberals, with the majority citing the central bank's unique structure and noting that the "appearance of independence is key to the Federal Reserve's design."
Whether the EAC falls closer to the FTC model or the Fed model is a question the removed commissioners could test in court. The Help America Vote Act, signed by President George W. Bush in 2002, created the commission as a bipartisan body, two Democrats and two Republicans, nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. That statutory design suggests Congress intended the agency to operate with some independence from the White House.
The timing matters. In March 2025, Trump issued a sweeping executive order on U.S. elections that urged the EAC to change the national voter registration form to require documentation of an applicant's U.S. citizenship. The commission declined to make that change.
A federal judge subsequently blocked that executive order, ruling it exceeded the president's authority because the Constitution grants elections management and oversight power to Congress and the states. The administration has indicated it will appeal.
The voter registration form dispute sits at the center of a broader push. Trump has pressed hard for voter ID requirements, and his administration this week threatened states that have not moved to purge what federal officials believe are noncitizens from their voter rolls.
The White House framed the EAC removals in those terms. Its statement to the AP said 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." A second White House statement added that the administration "from the start has been working across all agencies and local partners to safeguard elections from fraud and abuse, and investing in a strong infrastructure to sustain that mission especially in the midterm elections."
Sen. Alex Padilla of California, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Rules Committee, and Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, ranking member of the House Administration Committee, issued a joint statement attacking the move. They called it an attempt to "dismantle yet another independent guardrail of our democracy designed to keep elections fair and secure," and accused Trump of "purging commissioners just months before the midterm elections."
"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."
That language is heavy on alarm and light on specifics. The EAC's role, while important for grant distribution and voting-system certification, does not extend to running elections. States and localities administer their own voting. David Becker, a former Department of Justice attorney who runs the Center for Election Innovation & Research, wrote on BlueSky Friday morning that the action "doesn't really change anything about how our elections will be run, and how states are successfully ensuring secure, convenient, safe elections."
Becker's assessment undercuts the Democratic framing. If the EAC's removal doesn't change how elections are run, then the "guardrail of democracy" rhetoric looks more like political positioning than genuine institutional concern.
Still, the practical consequences deserve attention. The EAC certifies voting systems, a function that matters for states purchasing or upgrading election technology. And its grant-making role channels federal dollars to local election offices that often operate on thin budgets. An empty commission cannot approve new grants. Whether Trump intends to nominate replacements, and how quickly the Senate might confirm them, remains unknown.
The EAC action fits into a larger effort by the Trump administration to reshape the federal government's role in elections. Courts have blocked most of Trump's two executive orders that sought to change voting rules. The administration has launched an investigation of Trump's 2020 loss. And federal officials have pushed states on voter roll maintenance with increasing urgency.
The Department of Justice has sued 29 states over voter roll integrity, citing hundreds of thousands of dead registrants still on the books. That effort reflects a straightforward principle: voter rolls should be accurate, and states that let them decay invite questions about the integrity of their elections.
The EAC, for its part, had become an obstacle on the citizenship documentation question. When the commission declined to modify the national voter registration form as Trump's March order urged, it placed itself in direct tension with the administration's stated priorities. The White House's response, removing the commissioners who said no, is blunt, but it flows from a legal authority the Supreme Court has now affirmed in the Slaughter decision.
One of the removed commissioners, Hovland, was originally appointed by Trump during his first term. Hicks was an Obama appointee. McCormick, also an Obama appointee who served as a Republican, chose to resign rather than be removed. None of the three has publicly stated whether they intend to challenge the action in court.
Meanwhile, Trump has been actively organizing for the 2026 midterms, deploying senior staff to lead the Republican election effort. The administration clearly views election integrity measures and institutional alignment as part of the same project.
The EAC staff did not respond Friday to the AP's request for comment on how the agency will operate going forward. That silence leaves several questions unanswered. Can career staff continue day-to-day functions without commissioners? Will voting-system certification stall? Will states that rely on EAC grants face funding gaps?
The ongoing Senate fight over voter ID legislation adds another layer. If Congress ultimately passes a bill requiring proof of citizenship for voter registration, the EAC's role in maintaining the national form becomes even more significant, and the need for sitting commissioners more acute.
For now, the commission is a shell. The legal authority to empty it appears solid after Slaughter, though the EAC's statutory design as a bipartisan body could invite a court challenge on narrower grounds. The political argument is simpler: an agency that refused to implement the president's election integrity priorities now has no members to refuse anything.
Democrats will frame this as an assault on democracy. But a commission that wouldn't even require proof of citizenship on a voter registration form was never going to be the institution that saved it.
