On Thursday, the White House ousted all three remaining commissioners of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission — the bipartisan federal agency that helps state and local officials actually run elections. The two Democratic commissioners, Thomas Hicks and Benjamin Hovland, were fired via email from the White House Presidential Personnel Office. The lone Republican, Christy McCormick, got a phone call asking her to resign — and she did.
Read that again. Even the Republican had to go.
“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,” read the termination email, reviewed by Reuters.
That’s it. That’s the whole email. A one-line dismissal for Senate-confirmed commissioners — all three of whom, by the way, were confirmed unanimously.
What the EAC Actually Does
The Election Assistance Commission isn’t some obscure bureaucratic backwater. Congress created it through the Help America Vote Act of 2002 after the 2000 election debacle, specifically to help states run elections better. It certifies voting equipment, accredits the labs that test voting systems, maintains the national mail voter registration form, and acts as a clearinghouse for best practices between states.
Between 2018 and 2025, it distributed more than $1 billion in election security grants, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.
By law, the commission has four seats — two Democrats, two Republicans. One Republican seat has been vacant since April. As of Thursday, all four seats are empty. The agency has zero commissioners, and replacements require Senate confirmation — a process everyone in Washington knows will not happen before November.
That’s not a bug. That’s the point.
The Supreme Court Handed Him the Axe
The firings came just weeks after the Supreme Court’s conservative majority ruled 6-3 to overturn Humphrey’s Executor, the 90-year-old precedent that protected officials at independent, bipartisan agencies from being fired at the president’s whim. The whole reason that precedent existed was to keep agencies like this one free from political interference.
The White House didn’t even pretend otherwise. “The President, and head of the Executive Branch, reserves the right to remove individuals that may not be totally aligned with the important task of securing America’s elections,” a White House official said in a statement, citing the Supreme Court decision as precedent.
“Not totally aligned.” At a bipartisan agency. Where the law requires commissioners from both parties.
This Is Part of a Pattern
If Thursday’s purge feels familiar, it should. Trump already tried to commandeer the EAC once. His executive order last year directed the commission to add proof-of-citizenship requirements to federal voter registration forms — and it was largely blocked in court, with multiple judges ruling that the president simply doesn’t have the authority to order an independent commission to rewrite voter registration rules.
He lost in court. So now he’s firing the commission instead.
And it’s not happening in a vacuum. Just this week, the Justice Department warned election officials they could face criminal penalties if they fail to prevent noncitizens from registering or voting. FEMA has threatened to withhold federal funding from states that don’t comply with new election directives. Agency by agency, lever by lever, the administration is inserting itself into election administration — a job the Constitution largely leaves to the states.
“Irresponsible and Dangerous”
The reaction was immediate. Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes called the move “irresponsible and dangerous”, saying the administration “remains dead set on causing chaos for our election officials across this country” and that the purge “undermines the integrity of nonpartisan election administration.”
Senator Mark Warner said removing every remaining commissioner months before the midterms “should concern every American, regardless of party” and raises “profound concerns about political interference.”
One source familiar with the firings put it bluntly to NBC News: “It’s purely political and will throw the country into chaos to not have a functioning commission four months before the midterm elections.”
The Human Cost
Hovland, one of the fired Democratic commissioners, learned he’d been terminated while at the airport — returning from a work trip helping a Missouri election office. He flew home in a middle seat on a commercial flight.
His warning is worth sitting with: “When you’re asking more and more of people without giving them the necessary resources, you know, mistakes happen. And so there’s this real risk of like self-fulfilling prophecies.”
Think about what that means. Strip election officials of federal support, wait for the inevitable strain to cause errors, then point at those errors as proof the system is rigged. It’s a self-licking ice cream cone of election denialism.
Even in defeat, Hovland’s ask was simple: sign up to be a poll worker this fall. “There’s a lot that Americans can do along those lines too.”
The people who protect our elections just got fired for doing their jobs. The least the rest of us can do is show up.
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