President Trump’s decision to dismiss multiple members of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) has triggered alarm that the White House is positioning itself to meddle in the upcoming November midterms. The firings, which removed the remaining two Democratic commissioners and allowed a Republican member to resign, come just over a week after the Supreme Court affirmed the president’s broad authority to fire officials from independent boards previously considered insulated from executive control.
Latest Move in Election Overhaul Push
The ousters are the most recent chapter in Trump’s broader campaign to reshape election administration. His administration has pursued restrictions on voter registration, limited mail-in voting, sought access to voter data, and continued to baselessly challenge the 2020 election results. While experts say this week’s firings are unlikely to affect the current election cycle, voting rights groups warn of lasting damage to democratic safeguards.
“I think it’s fair to say that’s troubling for probably a lot of election officials across the country that this happened, and I hope that Congress might try to address this,” said Eric Fey, chair-elect of the EAC board of advisors, in an interview with The Hill.
EAC’s Role and Vulnerability
Created under the Help America Vote Act of 2002, the EAC was designed to support states and localities in running elections. It certifies voting technology, manages the national voter registration form, and distributes federal grants—but does not directly count votes or administer elections. The commission’s four Senate-confirmed commissioners are now all gone, leaving the agency effectively leaderless.
The administration’s focus on the EAC is part of a wider pattern. The Justice Department has demanded state voter rolls, plans to send election monitors to six Democratic-leaning states, and taken other steps. The U.S. Postal Service pushed a rule that could allow it to refuse delivery of mail-in ballots from states that haven’t shared their voter rolls. The Federal Emergency Management Agency reportedly threatened to withhold terrorism grant funding from states deemed insufficiently protective of “election integrity.” And officials seized voting machines in Puerto Rico, while Trump has promoted conspiracy theories about Dominion Voting Systems, now renamed Liberty Votes.
Legal and Political Pushback
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed about 80 lawsuits challenging these actions. “We’re witnessing a president who will take extreme measures to try to seize control our elections,” said Sophia Lin Lakin, director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project. “He’s kneecapping the Election Assistance Commission, he’s weaponizing the Justice Department against voters, and he’s signing unconstitutional executive orders to lock people out of the ballot box. This is no longer a pattern — it’s a strategy.”
The League of Women Voters also condemned the firings. “The American people deserve elections administered by trusted professionals, not shaped by political interference,” said CEO Celina Stewart. “This is not a routine personnel decision — it is a dangerous escalation in the effort to weaken the safeguards that protect free and fair elections in the November midterms.”
Political commentator David Axelrod has warned that these firings signal a clear intent to interfere in the midterms, echoing broader concerns about the administration’s approach.
Broader Context of Executive Power
Trump has fired members of numerous boards and commissions overseeing consumer safety, nuclear materials, and corporate mergers. The Supreme Court’s recent ruling in the case of Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter gave him expansive removal powers. A White House official defended the EAC firings, stating, “The President, and head of the Executive Branch, reserves the right to remove individuals that may not be totally aligned with the important task of securing America’s elections and ensuring every legal vote is counted. The Administration from the start has been working across all agencies and local partners to safeguard elections from fraud and abuse, and investing in a strong infrastructure to sustain that mission especially in the midterm elections.”
Mitchell Brown, a political science professor at Auburn University and founding editor of the Journal of Election Administration Research & Practice, noted the firings were not surprising but emphasized that states and localities run elections, not the federal government. “The perplexing part of that, to me, is for a Republican president to want the federal government involved,” he said.
