The three remaining members of the Election Assistance Commission have been pushed over by President Donald Trump, leaving the republican body in limbo as he tries to restructure how elections are conducted in advance of this year’s midterm elections.
Many publications with knowledge of the situation told ProPublica, which was the first to report the steps on its social media accounts, that Trump fired Benjamin Hovland and Thomas Hicks, the Democrats on the payment. According to the resources, Christy McCormick, the Republican, was permitted to withdraw.
Voter advocacy organizations and Democratic state election officials were alarmed by the commission’s extraordinary demolition, which they described as “reckless and irresponsible.”
The Democratic Association of Secretaries of State, which is head of the state’s secretary of state, said in a statement that” the EAC plays a crucial role in supporting state and local election officials, and it will once again fall on secretaries of state and different election officials to fill the void.”
The president “reserves the right to remove people who may not be fully in line with the important job of securing America’s primaries and ensuring every legitimate voting is counted,” according to a White House official, who declined to confirm the specific steps taken.
The official stated that the administration has been working with all government departments and local partners since the beginning to protect elections from fraud and abuse and has invested heavily in powerful infrastructure to support that quest, particularly in the midterm elections.
Hicks and McCormick did not respond to e-mail requests for comment right away. Hollandand declined to comment on his dismissal.
The commission was established in 2003 to provide financing for updates and establish criteria for state voting systems.
Its four-member panel is intended to be evenly distributed between Republicans and Democrats, who have all been confirmed by the Senate and recommended by the president at the suggestion of parliamentary leadership. Republican Republican Don Palmer, the third director, resigned in April. Trump is try to find replacements who may be more sensitive to his demands by firing the committee’s remaining members.
Trump signed a broad executive order in March 2025 that directed the EAC to update the state’s voter registration form, which serves as the model for the types in each state, to make it necessary to present evidence of U.S. citizen in order to enroll to cast a ballot. Voters in virtually all states can speak their citizenship at the point of entry, but they are not required to provide any additional evidence.
The kind had been petitioned by the Trump-aligned law company America First Legal to the EAC. The EAC posted a notice for feedback, and it received hundreds of thousands of them in answer, but it had not yet cast a ballot.
The departures represent” a major loss for one of the several institutions in the federal government that has been specifically designed around bipartisan governance,” according to the Bipartisan Policy Center, a group that campaigns on election issues.
The committee has experienced political infighting and ineptitude, as well as persistent vacancies and a lack of financing. But, it has made some progress in recent years, including establishing new resources and making suggestions for election officials. Despite its political divide, the commission’s decisions were frequently unanimous.
Before the midterms, Trump pushed out the remaining members of the nonpartisan election committee.
