President Donald Trump has dismantled the bipartisan federal election commission that supports state and local election officials, removing all current members just months before the 2026 midterm elections. The White House confirmed the Friday purge of the Election Assistance Commission, which provides critical grants, tests voting systems, and maintains national voter registration forms.
Trump removed the commission's two Democratic members, Thomas Hicks and Benjamin Hovland, while Republican member Christy McCormick resigned. Former Republican commissioner Donald Palmer had already left his post voluntarily earlier this year. The changes were first reported by VoteBeat.
Constitutional Guardrails Under Pressure
The Election Assistance Commission was created by Congress as part of the Help America Vote Act, a bipartisan law signed by Republican President George W. Bush 24 years ago in 2002. The act requires the commission to include two Democrats and two Republicans, nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. Hicks and McCormick were appointed by President Barack Obama. Trump appointed Hovland during his first presidency.
The White House didn't say whether Trump planned to nominate new members immediately or leave the positions vacant. If the seats remain open, the commission could be unable to distribute new grants to state or local election offices and could face complications in overseeing testing and certification of voting systems around the country.
The White House cited the Supreme Court's recent Slaughter decision as legal precedent. "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 and ensuring every legal vote is counted," the statement said.
Lawmakers Decry Politicization
Sen. Alex Padilla, D-California, and Rep. Joe Morelle, D-New York, condemned the move as a dangerous politicization of the voting process. "President Trump is trying to dismantle yet another independent guardrail of our democracy designed to keep elections fair and secure," they said. "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." Padilla is the ranking member of the Senate Rules Committee, and Morelle is ranking member of the House Administration Committee.
The lawmakers also said the Supreme Court's conservative majority enabled Trump's move with its decision to "upend decades of executive power to appease the President."
Pattern of Voting Restrictions
Trump has repeatedly tried to reshape voting regulations, even though the U.S. Constitution gives control of elections to the states, not the president. Courts have blocked most of his two executive orders that sought to reshape voting. He's also launched an investigation of his 2020 loss, which he continues to falsely insist was due to fraud, and this week his administration threatened states if they didn't try to purge what federal officials believe are noncitizens from their voter rolls.
The White House statement didn't give a specific reason for Trump's action, but the commission had previously declined to change the national voter registration form to require documentation of an applicant's U.S. citizenship, as Trump urged in a sweeping March 2025 executive order on U.S. elections. The form itself doesn't require citizenship documents, though voter registration materials from the agency say it's already illegal to falsely claim U.S. citizenship to vote.
A federal judge blocked that order, ruling it exceeded the president's authority because the U.S. Constitution gives authority over elections management and oversight to Congress and the states. The administration has said it will appeal.
Supreme Court Empowers Executive
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 last month in the case of former Federal Trade Commission member Rebecca Slaughter that Trump had wide executive authority to fire political appointees of independent executive agencies. Trump had fired Slaughter without cause despite a federal law provision requiring a reason and a nearly century-old Supreme Court precedent insulating independent agency heads from presidential whims. The court's six conservatives said those restrictions violated the Constitution's separation of powers. The logic extends to other agencies, including the National Labor Relations Board, the Merit Systems Protection Board and the Consumer Product Safety Commission, where Trump also has fired board members.
In a separate case involving Federal Reserve Board member Lisa Cook, whom Trump had tried to fire, a 5-4 majority said the president couldn't fire central bank governors without cause. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined the court's three liberals in that case. They cited the central bank's unique structure as a congressionally chartered but independent, quasi-private institution whose "appearance of independence is key to the Federal Reserve's design" and its role in setting monetary policy that shapes the U.S. and world economy.
According to VoteBeat, Hicks and Hovland were notified of their removal by an email signed by Morgan DeWitt Snow, the deputy director of presidential personnel in the Executive Office of the President. Hicks and Hovland could challenge their dismissals, but that could require the Supreme Court to revisit the decisions it just issued on the president's power over independent agencies.
Election Experts Respond
David Becker, a former Department of Justice attorney who runs the Center for Election Innovation & Research, said the purge wouldn't change how elections are run. "This doesn't really change anything about how our elections will be run, and how states are successfully ensuring secure, convenient, safe elections," Becker wrote on the social media site BlueSky Friday morning.
Staff at the Election Assistance Commission didn't immediately respond Friday to a request for comment on the agency's operations moving forward.
Why This Matters:
The dismantling of a bipartisan election commission created by Congress to support state and local officials raises fundamental questions about democratic safeguards and the separation of powers. With the commission potentially unable to distribute grants or certify voting systems, local election offices could face resource shortages and technical complications as they prepare for the 2026 midterms. The move follows a pattern of executive actions attempting to centralize control over voting processes that the Constitution explicitly assigns to states and Congress. The Supreme Court's recent expansion of presidential removal power over independent agencies has effectively eliminated protections that existed for nearly a century, allowing political considerations to override statutory requirements for bipartisan balance and cause-based dismissals. For voters and election administrators who depend on nonpartisan federal support, the question isn't just who runs elections, but whether the infrastructure designed to ensure fair access and security can function when subjected to partisan control.