President Donald Trump has removed all sitting members of the Election Assistance Commission, a bipartisan federal body that distributes grants to state and local election offices and oversees voting system certification. The White House confirmed the action Friday, citing the president's authority to ensure officials are "totally aligned with the important task of securing America's elections and ensuring every legal vote is counted."
Trump dismissed Democratic commissioners Thomas Hicks and Benjamin Hovland from the four-member panel. Republican commissioner Christy McCormick resigned, while former Republican member Donald Palmer had already departed earlier this year. The changes, first reported by VoteBeat, leave the commission without any sitting members for the first time since its creation.
Constitutional Authority and Legal Precedent
The White House invoked the Supreme Court's recent Slaughter decision to justify the removals. Last month, the court ruled 6-3 that Trump possesses broad executive authority to fire political appointees at independent agencies without cause. That ruling overturned nearly a century of precedent that had shielded such officials from presidential removal.
The Election Assistance Commission was established by Congress through the Help America Vote Act, a bipartisan law signed by President George W. Bush in 2002. The statute requires the commission to maintain equal party representation—two Democrats and two Republicans, all nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. Hicks and McCormick were appointed by President Barack Obama. Trump appointed Hovland during his first term.
Operational Implications
The White House hasn't indicated whether Trump will nominate replacements immediately or leave the positions vacant. Without commissioners, the agency could face significant operational constraints. It may be unable to distribute new grants to state or local election offices and could encounter complications in overseeing the testing and certification of voting systems nationwide.
David Becker, a former Department of Justice attorney who runs the Center for Election Innovation & Research, downplayed the impact. "This doesn't really change anything about how our elections will be run, and how states are successfully ensuring secure, convenient, safe elections," he wrote on BlueSky Friday morning.
Citizenship Documentation Dispute
The commission had previously declined to modify the national voter registration form to require documentation of U.S. citizenship, as Trump urged in a March 2025 executive order. The form doesn't mandate citizenship documents, though agency materials state it's already illegal to falsely claim citizenship to vote.
A federal judge blocked that executive order, ruling it exceeded presidential authority because the Constitution grants election management oversight to Congress and the states. The administration has appealed.
Congressional Response
Sen. Alex Padilla, D-California, and Rep. Joe Morelle, D-New York, criticized the move as 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 serves as ranking member of the Senate Rules Committee, while Morelle holds the same position on the House Administration Committee. Both lawmakers also faulted the Supreme Court's conservative majority for enabling Trump's action by upending "decades of executive power to appease the President."
Broader Context of Election Oversight
Trump has repeatedly attempted to reshape voting regulations, despite constitutional provisions that give states control over elections. Courts have blocked most provisions of his two executive orders targeting voting procedures. His administration also launched an investigation of his 2020 loss, which he continues to falsely claim resulted from fraud. This week, federal officials threatened states that don't attempt to purge suspected noncitizens from voter rolls.
According to VoteBeat, Hicks and Hovland received notification of their removal via email from Morgan DeWitt Snow, deputy director of presidential personnel. The dismissed commissioners could challenge their firings, though doing so might require the Supreme Court to revisit its recent rulings on presidential power over independent agencies.
In a separate case involving Federal Reserve Board member Lisa Cook, whom Trump attempted to fire, a 5-4 Supreme Court majority ruled the president couldn't remove central bank governors without cause. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined the court's three liberals, citing the Fed's unique structure as a congressionally chartered but independent institution whose "appearance of independence is key to the Federal Reserve's design."
Why This Matters:
The commission's dissolution raises fundamental questions about the balance between executive authority and institutional independence in election administration. With no commissioners in place, states and localities may face disruptions in federal support for voting infrastructure at a critical moment before midterm elections. The move tests the outer boundaries of the Slaughter precedent, which extends presidential removal power to agencies including the National Labor Relations Board and Consumer Product Safety Commission. Whether the courts will distinguish between purely administrative agencies and those with direct election oversight responsibilities remains unclear. The commission's inability to function could force states to rely more heavily on their own resources for election system certification and security improvements, potentially creating inconsistencies in voting standards across jurisdictions. The episode also illustrates ongoing tensions between federal election policy initiatives and constitutional provisions reserving election management to states.