{"id":1011,"date":"2026-07-10T11:08:54","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T11:08:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=1011"},"modified":"2026-07-10T11:08:54","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T11:08:54","slug":"trump-purges-election-assistance-commission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=1011","title":{"rendered":"Trump Purges Election Assistance Commission"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The White House fired two Democratic Election Assistance Commission members Thursday afternoon, completely vacating the federal agency in charge of election management guidelines after the remaining Republican member resigned.<\/p>\n

Read more The Case of the Redacted SEC Conflict of Interest Waiver<\/a><\/p>\n

President Donald Trump\u2019s move comes after a recent Supreme Court ruling that vastly expanded<\/u><\/span> the president\u2019s ability to fire independent government regulators. The court exempted the Federal Reserve, blocking Trump\u2019s attempts to remove one of its governors, Lisa Cook.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, a Trump official fired Thomas Hicks and Benjamin Hovland \u2014 the panel\u2019s two Democratic commissioners \u2014 via email, Votebeat reported<\/u><\/span>. The third commissioner, Republican Christy McCormick, resigned afterward. A fourth commissioner, Republican Donald Palmer, had already left the agency earlier this year to join<\/u><\/span> the Heritage Foundation.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump couldn\u2019t rig the elections through the SAVE Act, so he\u2019s now moving unilaterally to subvert the 2026 elections starting with sacking the bipartisan EAC commissioners,\u201d said Tim Lim, a Democratic strategist working on election administration issues. \u201cBetween the FBI surging into Fulton County and today\u2019s action, it\u2019s clear Donald Trump is determined to stop a free and fair election this November.\u201d<\/p>\n

Congress established<\/u><\/span> the small federal agency through the Help America Vote Act after the tightly contested 2000 presidential election in order to provide best practices to state and municipal election officials, as well as to develop specifications for testing and certifying voting systems. The four-person, bipartisan panel issues voluntary guidance and holds no enforcement authority.<\/p>\n

Republicans have tried \u2014 unsuccessfully \u2014 to eliminate the agency, the size of which former President Joe Biden doubled during his term. It now has just 65 employees after a wave of Trump cuts.<\/p>\n

Read more Senate Candidates Have Been Replaced Before. Here\u2019s How It Went.<\/a><\/p>\n

Other election officials and lawmakers have criticized the agency for not adequately advancing election security measures in the past, though the commission\u2019s membership has been in flux throughout its existence. The EAC lacked a quorum for years \u2014 frozen in its abilities to update voting guidance \u2014 until the Senate confirmed new commissioners in 2019.<\/p>\n

After the Supreme Court\u2019s June ruling, it is still unclear whether the EAC would fall under the executive branch\u2019s expanded ability to fire independent regulators. Trump\u2019s termination of a Democratic commissioner on the Federal Election Commission earlier this year didn\u2019t end in a lawsuit, leaving little precedent for this type of panel vacancy. The FEC has not had a quorum since April 2025 after two other commissioners, both Republicans, departed the six-person panel \u2014 freezing the campaign finance agency\u2019s ability to issue guidance.<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s EAC firings could further endanger the government\u2019s ability to make bipartisan election-related recommendations ahead of the midterms, particularly as Trump moves to aggressively reshape the way the country votes.<\/p>\n

Democratic secretaries of state panned the dismissals, saying the White House has continually undermined nonpartisan election integrity and made it difficult for election officials to do their work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe EAC plays a critical role in supporting state and local election officials, and it will again fall on Secretaries of State and other election administrators to fill the gap,\u201d said Cisco Aguilar, chair of the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State.<\/p>\n

Read more Inside Russ Vought\u2019s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thursday\u2019s firings could endanger the government\u2019s ability to make bipartisan election-related recommendations ahead of the midterms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1010,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trump-white-house"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump Purges Election Assistance Commission - Modern Home Journals<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=1011\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump Purges Election Assistance Commission - Modern Home Journals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Thursday\u2019s firings could endanger the government\u2019s ability to make bipartisan election-related recommendations ahead of the midterms.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=1011\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Modern Home Journals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-10T11:08:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=1011#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=1011\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/533de239efc09a2ab59959cc1bff86d0\"},\"headline\":\"Trump Purges Election Assistance Commission\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-10T11:08:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=1011\"},\"wordCount\":550,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=1011#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/b04696b64d2af6e5af429c8325ab86a2-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Trump White House\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=1011#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=1011\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=1011\",\"name\":\"Trump Purges Election Assistance Commission - Modern Home Journals\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=1011#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=1011#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/b04696b64d2af6e5af429c8325ab86a2-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-10T11:08:54+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/533de239efc09a2ab59959cc1bff86d0\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=1011#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=1011\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=1011#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/b04696b64d2af6e5af429c8325ab86a2-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/b04696b64d2af6e5af429c8325ab86a2-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1707,\"caption\":\"Ben Hovland, center, Commissioner of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, and EAC Vice Chair Christy McCormick, right, speak with Washington Assistant Secretary of State Kevin McMahan at the National Association of Secretaries of State winter meeting, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023, in Washington. 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