President Trump removed the remaining members of the Election Assistance Commission late Thursday, leaving the bipartisan federal panel that helps states run elections without a single sitting commissioner just months before the November midterms. The White House confirmed the move Friday, framing it as an exercise of the president's authority to remove officials who are not aligned with his agenda.

The commission's two Democratic members, Chairman Thomas Hicks and Benjamin Hovland, were fired by email from the White House Presidential Personnel Office. The lone remaining Republican, Christy McCormick, resigned. A fourth commissioner, Republican Donald Palmer, had already departed in April. The action marks the first test of the expanded firing power the Supreme Court handed Trump last month, and it lands amid a broader push by the administration to assert federal control over a process the Constitution assigns to the states.

The Firings

The termination notices were brief. "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," read the email, signed by an official in the Executive Office of the President. VoteBeat, an outlet that covers elections, first reported the dismissals.

The White House defended the move by pointing to the Supreme Court. "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," an official said, adding that "the Slaughter decision gives the President precedence to do so." The official said the administration had been "working across all agencies and local partners to safeguard elections from fraud and abuse" ahead of the midterms.

All three commissioners forced out had been unanimously confirmed by the Senate. Hicks was appointed by President Obama, McCormick was also an Obama appointee, and Hovland was named by Trump during his first term. Under the 2002 Help America Vote Act, which created the commission, the panel is meant to have four members, no more than two from the same party, each confirmed by the Senate.

What the Commission Does

The Election Assistance Commission is a small agency with limited authority, and several experts said its removal would not change how November's elections are run. It serves as a national clearinghouse for election information, helps train local officials, runs a voluntary program that tests and certifies voting machines, distributes federal election-security grants, and maintains the national mail voter registration form. It does not handle ballots or voter rolls, does not communicate with voters, and has no power over how states administer their elections.

David Becker, a former Justice Department attorney who runs the Center for Election Innovation and Research, said the purge "doesn't really change anything about how our elections will be run." Matt Weil of the Bipartisan Policy Center made a similar point, saying officials would still be able to run "secure, accessible, and trustworthy elections in November," though "without the full level of support the EAC normally provides."

Still, the timing raised practical questions. With no confirmed commissioners, the agency cannot act, and it was unclear whether Trump would nominate replacements or leave the seats empty, a move that could stall new grants to states and complicate the certification of voting systems. One person familiar with the shakeup said the commissioners had been briefing state and local officials on defending election systems against foreign cyberattacks, and it was unclear whether those sessions would continue.

A Pattern of Election Moves

The firings fit a broader effort by Trump to reshape how elections are conducted, even as courts have repeatedly told him the Constitution gives that authority to Congress and the states. The commission had declined to carry out part of his March 2025 executive order directing it to add a proof-of-citizenship requirement to the national voter registration form. A federal judge blocked that provision, ruling the president had exceeded his authority; the administration is appealing.

The administration has also pushed to tighten vote-by-mail rules and threatened to withhold federal funding from states that resist new requirements, efforts that have largely been challenged in court. Earlier this week, the Justice Department warned state officials they could face prosecution if they failed to remove noncitizens from voter rolls. Trump has continued to insist, without evidence, that his 2020 loss to Joe Biden was the result of fraud, a claim that multiple lawsuits and recounts, some of them funded by Trump, have failed to substantiate. Noncitizen voting is illegal and, studies have found, exceedingly rare.

The move drew sharp reaction from Democrats. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called it "a brazen attempt to seize control of our elections before a single vote is cast" and said Democrats would "fight this power grab at every turn." Senator Mark Warner said the removal of every remaining commissioner "should concern every American, regardless of party." Senator Alex Padilla and Representative Joe Morelle, the ranking Democrats on the committees overseeing the commission, accused Trump of trying to "dismantle yet another independent guardrail of our democracy." Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes called it "irresponsible and dangerous." Some Republicans defended the action; Representative Abe Hamadeh of Arizona argued the commission had "enabled weak standards" and "politicized a sacred nonpartisan process."

The Legal Backdrop

The firings rest on the Supreme Court's June 29 ruling in Trump v. Slaughter, in which a 6-3 majority held that the president has broad authority to remove members of independent agencies without cause. The decision overturned a nearly century-old precedent that had shielded such officials, with Chief Justice John Roberts writing that "neither Congress nor the courts may saddle" the president with subordinates he cannot work with. Trump called the ruling "the Greatest Increase in Presidential Power in the last 100 years."

That logic has already reached agencies including the Federal Trade Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission, where Trump has removed board members. In a separate 5-4 ruling the same day, however, the court carved out an exception for the Federal Reserve, blocking Trump's attempt to fire Governor Lisa Cook and citing the central bank's unique structure.

The ousted commissioners could challenge their dismissals in court, though doing so might force the justices to revisit the reasoning they laid out only weeks ago. For now, replacements would require Senate confirmation, and Trump has not said whether he intends to fill the seats or leave the commission, at least through the midterms, entirely empty.