Trump fires entire Election Assistance Commission leadership four months before midterm vote, Democrats decry 'brazen' power grab

The firings

On Thursday, July 9, the White House dismissed the two Democratic members of the four-member U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) and accepted the resignation of the sole Republican commissioner. A termination email from the Presidential Personnel Office, seen by Reuters, read:

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 fourth commissioner had already left in April. The commission, created in 2002 after the Help America Vote Act, is now without a single sitting member and cannot convene a quorum to conduct new business.

Democratic backlash

Democrats accused Trump of a blatant power grab ahead of the November midterm elections. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called it a "brazen attempt to seize control of our elections before a single vote is cast," while Senator Alex Padilla said the president was "dismantling an independent safeguard of our democracy."

Firing commissioners just months before the election is a flagrant part of his plan to politicize our elections and enable more illegitimate and dangerous election manipulation.

Senator Mark Warner termed the move "an extraordinary step that demands immediate explanation from the government," and Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes warned it risked "sowing chaos."

White House justification

The White House defended the firings by citing a Supreme Court ruling from June 29 that expanded the president's authority to remove members of independent federal agencies. A White House official said Trump "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 statement added that the administration had been "working across all agencies and local partners to safeguard elections from fraud and abuse … especially in the midterm elections."

What the EAC does

The Election Assistance Commission serves as a national clearinghouse for election administration, certifies voting systems, accredits testing labs, and maintains the national mail voter registration form. It also distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in federal election aid to states each year. Without commissioners, the agency cannot approve changes to voting machine guidelines, update the mail-in ballot form, or launch investigations.

A pattern of election oversight changes

Thursday's move is the latest in a series of Trump administration actions targeting election administration bodies. In February 2025, the Department of Government Efficiency under Elon Musk removed 130 EAC employees; they were later reinstated by court order. In March 2025, Attorney General Pam Bondi dissolved an FBI unit that investigated foreign election interference. Trump has also been pushing the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to vote and sharply limit mail-in ballots, and issued an executive order to add citizenship proof to the federal mail voter form. The SAVE America Act remains stalled in Congress, but Trump has repeatedly called for its passage and continues to claim, without evidence, that mail voting invites fraud and that non-citizens are voting illegally.

With the midterms just four months away, the dismantling of the EAC leaves federal election oversight in limbo and has ignited a new political firestorm.