White House removes remaining Election Assistance Commission members
The White House confirmed on July 10 that President Trump had removed the two Democratic members of the Election Assistance Commission, Thomas Hicks and Benjamin Hovland, who were notified by email a day earlier. With Republican commissioner Christy McCormick then resigning and fellow Republican Donald Palmer having left in April, the agency is left with no sitting commissioners. The administration said the president “reserves the right to remove individuals that may not be totally aligned with the important task of securing America’s elections.”
The EAC, created by Congress in 2002, certifies voting systems and issues voter-registration guidance for state and local officials; by statute its membership is meant to be split evenly between the two parties. The commission had declined to add a proof-of-citizenship requirement to the federal voter-registration form sought in a Trump executive order that a federal judge later blocked.
The move fits a broader effort to reshape federal election administration, alongside tighter mail-voting rules and threats to withhold funding from non-compliant states. It was enabled in part by a recent Supreme Court ruling expanding a president’s power to remove officials at independent agencies without cause. In practice, election administration remains a state responsibility, so the immediate effect is to sideline the EAC’s certification and guidance functions rather than to change how ballots are cast — though an agency with no commissioners cannot act on pending business ahead of November.