Day 536

Trump Removes Every Remaining Election Assistance Commissioner Months Before the Midterms (July 2026)

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.

Election Assistance Commission emptied

Trump fires EAC commissioners Thomas Hicks and Benjamin Hovland and accepts Christy McCormick's resignation, leaving the federal election-administration agency with no members (see eac-commissioners-purge-july2026).

From: Executive Order on Elections: Voter Suppression and Presidential Seizure of Election Administration