The Trump administration gutted a bipartisan federal agency that oversees elections on Thursday, a worrying decision with midterms just around the corner.
The two Democratic members of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission were fired via email, Reuters reported, while the only Republican member was ordered to resign. The commission, created by Congress more than two decades ago, is now leaderless with a major federal election quickly approaching.
Because states oversee elections in the U.S., the EAC plays a vital support role, coordinating with state and local officials to certify voting equipment and share best practices to ensure that elections run smoothly. The federal agency is also charged with doling out grant money for election security and overseeing the national voter registration form – already a target of Trump’s effort to exert more control over elections.
“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,” the email to commissioners stated. Four total EAC commissioners – two Republicans and two Democrats – are appointed by the president and must be approved by the Senate.
Trump’s decision to empty out the EAC came just after the Supreme Court expanded the president’s power to dismiss the heads of previously independent federal agencies. Firing agency leaders is one way that Trump has tried to wrest more power away from agencies that might not fall in line with his priorities during his second term.
Trump’s fight for more power over elections
In an executive order last year, Trump sought to force voters to provide a passport or other proof of citizenship when they register to vote. Trump’s push to add proof-of-citizenship requirements to the national voter registration form ran into a preliminary injunction last year and a federal judge reinforced that decision this June, ruling that the Constitution “does not grant the President any specific powers over elections.”
In a separate executive order issued in March, Trump directed the U.S. Postal Service to restrict which voters receive a ballot through the mail. The order ramped up the administration’s effort to flex federal power over elections and followed a pledge from the president to “get rid of mail-in ballots,” which he has misleadingly linked to false claims of voter fraud during the 2020 presidential election. A federal judge also blocked that aspect of Trump’s plan to seize election power last month, ruling that the Postal Service couldn’t withhold mail-in ballots for states that refuse to provide the federal government with a list of voters.
Following the shakeup at the election agency, Virginia Democratic Senator Mark Warner warned that the president’s sudden changes to the EAC are a threat to “secure and credible” elections that should concern Republicans and Democrats alike. “Removing every remaining commissioner just months before the 2026 midterm elections is an extraordinary step that demands an immediate explanation from the administration and raises profound concerns about political interference in the institutions that support our elections,” Warner wrote on X.