President Trump Removes All Members of U.S. Election Assistance Commission

President Trump dismissed all remaining members of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission this week, leaving the four-member body without leadership four months before the November midterm elections. He fired Democratic commissioners Thomas Hicks and Benjamin Hovland on Thursday.

Republican commissioner Christy McCormick resigned after the firings. The other Republican commissioner, Donald Palmer, had resigned in April. The commission was created by Congress in 2002 under the Help America Vote Act.

By law, no more than two of its four commissioners may belong to the same party. The agency distributes federal election security grants to states and localities and maintains the national voter registration form. Since 2018 the commission has disbursed more than $1 billion in grants that fund protection of IT systems, updates to voting systems, maintenance of voter rolls, and ballot integrity measures.

Without confirmed commissioners the commission cannot take any official action. A White House official cited the Supreme Court decision in Trump v. Slaughter as authority for the removals and stated the removed commissioners were not totally aligned with securing elections and counting every legal vote.

Former commissioner Benjamin W. Hovland stated that removing the agency will have a negative effect on strained state and local election officials. California Secretary of State Shirley Weber stated Trump is injecting unnecessary chaos, confusion and instability into election systems.

President Trump has sought legislation requiring proof of citizenship for voter registration and photo ID at polls. The proposed SAVE America Act lacks sufficient Senate votes to pass, according to Republican leaders.