Trump removes remaining heads of Election Assistance Commission

Trump removes remaining heads of Election Assistance Commission

Terminations follow Supreme Court giving president more power over indepedent agencies

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday terminated the last three members of the Election Assistance Commission, the independent, federal commission that assists election administration officials nationwide, the White House confirmed.

The remaining three commissioners of the four-member bipartisan commission were forced out on Thursday in different ways. The one Republican appointee resigned and the other two Democratic appointees were fired via an email from the White House Presidential Personnel Office, according to one person familiar with the decision and two other people briefed on the terminations.

The fourth commissioner departed in April.

The terminations follow last week's Supreme Court decision that granted the president more power to fire members of independent agencies, and a push by Trump for more federal intervention in voting processes, traditionally the purview of the states, as midterm elections approach in November.

"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 termination email, seen by Reuters, said.

It is unclear how Trump will move ahead with the commission or how career staff in the federal government who support the agency will be affected.

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The Election Assistance Commission serves as a "national clearinghouse of information on election administration," accredits testing laboratories and certifies voting systems, and maintains the national mail voter registration form developed by the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, according to the commission's website.

In a joint statement Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla of California and House Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, also a Democrat, said the president "continues to double down on his efforts to erode trust in our elections."

"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," the legislators said.

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes in a statement called it an "irresponsible and dangerous" decision. In a subsequent appearance Thursday night on MS Now, Fontes said that while much of the election commission's work and support "is usually in the offseason," and the hiring and training of poll workers is well underway, not having a stable or reliably independent agency should any last-minute issues arise is concerning.

The commission was established by Congress in 2002 in the wake of the chaotic presidential election two years earlier, when the validity of a host of ballots in Florida was challenged in a protracted legal dispute that reached the Supreme Court.

The four commissioners are appointed by the president, are required to be evenly split with two Democrats and two Republicans, and ultimately need to be confirmed by the Senate. The three remaining commissioners who were forced out — Thomas Hicks, Benjamin Hovland and Christy McCormick — were all unanimously confirmed by the Senate.

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The terminations follow advocacy from Trump and top administration officials to change vote-by-mail requirements ahead of the midterm elections. Trump called a Supreme Court ruling last week that allowed Mississippi to process mail-in ballots for several days after election day "detrimental to honest elections."

The administration has hit legal roadblocks in its efforts to get voter roll information from multiple states, with federal judges denying multiple attempts.

This week, The Associated Press reported that the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division sent letters Tuesday to election officials for all 50 states and the District of Columbia which said they and other election administrators could face criminal charges if they knowingly allow nonvoters to vote or remain on voting rolls.

Trump, meanwhile, repeated his pledge Friday on social media not to sign a housing bill into a law that has bipartisan support, until the Senate can pass his desired Save America Act. The act would require a photo ID to vote in federal elections and proof of U.S. citizenship to register, while compelling states to turn over their voter registration rolls to the federal government.

Democrats and voting rights groups say the legislation would disenfranchise Americans who lack ready access to passports and birth certificates in order to address noncitizen voting, which research shows is exceedingly rare.

Senate Republicans have told the Trump administration the Save America Act has no chance of getting the required votes, and some are reportedly balking at the bill's proposal to eliminate universal mail-in voting. Some analysts have argued that Republican voters were even more enthusiastic adherents than Democrats for mail-in voting until Trump entered national politics, and he was won two of the three U.S. elections that have featured the highest percentage of mail-in or absentee ballots.

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In his second term, Trump has repeatedly claimed without evidence that the 2020 election was rigged. Presidential elections take place in a highly decentralized, complex voting landscape in which some 10,000 other votes are held, not just for Congress, but a host of local and state races.

It's not clear under such a scenario how just the 2020 presidential vote could have its totals manipulated while other votes on ballots that are different in each county, and often processed by separate voting technology systems, could ensue without incident or disruption.

The FBI searched the Fulton County election hub in Georgia in January and seized hundreds of boxes of ballots and other documents from the 2020 election. However, a federal judge in recent days rejected a government subpoena — calling it "untethered to any reasonable need" — that requested the names and personal contact information of Fulton County election employees and voluntary poll workers.