{"slug":"eac-commissioners-purge-july2026","title":"Trump Removes Every Remaining Election Assistance Commissioner Months Before the Midterms (July 2026)","date":"2026-07-09","lastUpdated":"2026-07-13","description":"On July 9, 2026, ten days after the Supreme Court's ruling in Trump v. Slaughter, the White House fired the two Democratic members of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, Thomas Hicks and Benjamin Hovland, by email, and allowed the Republican commissioner, Christy McCormick, to resign. With the fourth seat already vacant, the bipartisan agency Congress created after the 2000 election to support state election administration was left with no commissioners and no quorum less than four months before the November 2026 midterms. The White House said the president may remove officials 'that may not be totally aligned with the important task of securing America's elections' and cited Slaughter as its authority. The EAC had not yet acted on a petition, backed by Trump's March 2025 executive order, to add documentary proof of citizenship to the national voter registration form.","summary":"Trump emptied the Election Assistance Commission, the only federal agency dedicated solely to election administration, firing its two Democratic commissioners by email and accepting the Republican's resignation. The White House said the firings were authorized by the Supreme Court's new removal-power ruling. The agency cannot update voting-system guidelines or take other formal votes until new commissioners are confirmed. It had been sitting on a pending demand, pressed by Trump's 2025 election order, to require documentary proof of citizenship on the federal registration form.","category":"civil-rights","severity":"major","ongoing":true,"sources":[{"url":"https://www.votebeat.org/2025/11/24/judge-blocks-trump-executive-order-proof-of-citizenship/","title":"Judge rules against Trump's call for proof-of-citizenship requirement for voters","publisher":"Votebeat"},{"url":"https://www.votebeat.org/national/2026/07/09/trump-fires-election-assistance-commission-members-hicks-hovland-mccormick/","title":"Trump fires Election Assistance Commission members, leaving agency unable to act","publisher":"Votebeat"},{"url":"https://www.propublica.org/article/federal-election-assistance-commission-trump-dismantled","title":"Trump Pushes Out Last Federal Election Assistance Commission Members","publisher":"ProPublica"},{"url":"https://www.nextgov.com/policy/2026/07/trump-empties-out-election-commission-leadership-just-months-midterms/414699/","title":"Trump empties out election commission leadership just months before midterms","publisher":"Nextgov/FCW"},{"url":"https://www.votebeat.org/national/2026/07/13/trump-eac-voting-oversight-neutralize-election-assistance/","title":"What Trump's Election Assistance Commission firings mean for the 2026 elections","publisher":"Votebeat"}],"draft":false,"status":"published","tags":["Election Assistance Commission","2026 midterms","independent agencies","removal power","Trump v. Slaughter","election administration","proof of citizenship"],"relatedEntries":["scotus-humphreys-executor-overturned","voter-suppression-election-interference"],"timeline":[{"date":"2026-04-01","title":"Commissioner Palmer departs","summary":"Republican commissioner Donald Palmer leaves the EAC in April 2026, reducing the commission to three members."},{"date":"2026-06-29","title":"Trump v. Slaughter decided","summary":"The Supreme Court rules 6-3 that for-cause removal protections for FTC commissioners are unconstitutional, overturning Humphrey's Executor."},{"date":"2026-07-09","title":"Remaining commissioners removed","summary":"Hicks and Hovland are fired by email; McCormick resigns. The White House cites Slaughter as its authority. The EAC is left with no commissioners."},{"date":"2026-07-13","title":"Reporting on operational consequences","summary":"Votebeat reports that the EAC cannot update voting-system guidelines or take formal votes until at least three new commissioners are confirmed, although staff-level certification and payments continue."}],"location":{"name":"Washington, DC","lat":38.9072,"lng":-77.0369},"custom":{"era":"second-term","posture":"executive-action","warCrimeClassification":"enabling","internationalLaw":[{"statute":"International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights","article":"Article 25","provision":"Right to vote at genuine periodic elections that guarantee the free expression of the will of electors, which depends on impartial election administration"}],"iccRelevance":false,"victims":"State and local election administrators who rely on the EAC; voters in the 2026 midterm elections","perpetrators":"President Trump; White House Presidential Personnel Office","structuredPerpetrators":[{"name":"Donald J. Trump","role":"President","institution":"Executive Office of the President"},{"name":"Morgan DeWitt","role":"Deputy Director of Presidential Personnel (sent the termination emails)","institution":"White House Presidential Personnel Office"}],"keyPoints":["Commissioners Thomas Hicks (a member since 2014) and Benjamin Hovland (since 2019) were fired by email on July 9, 2026; Republican Christy McCormick was allowed to resign. Republican Donald Palmer had already left in April 2026.","The termination email 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.'","The White House statement: 'The President 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.' A White House official added: 'The Slaughter decision gives the President precedence to do so.'","Without a quorum the EAC cannot adopt or change voting-system guidelines or take other formal votes. Votebeat reported that testing and certification of voting systems against previously adopted standards, and formula-based payments to states, can continue through staff.","ProPublica reported that the commission had received hundreds of thousands of public comments on an America First Legal petition to require documentary proof of citizenship on the national voter registration form, a change Trump's March 2025 executive order directed, and had not voted on it when the commissioners were removed."],"legalBasis":"Help America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. § 20921 et seq., which establishes a four-member bipartisan commission, no more than two from one party); Elections Clause (Art. I, § 4); Trump v. Slaughter (2026)","postureNote":"The removals were executive actions announced by the White House. Whether Trump v. Slaughter, which concerned the FTC, reaches a bipartisan election agency has not been tested in court. No legal challenge to the EAC removals had been reported as of this entry's last update."}}