{"id":828,"date":"2026-07-12T19:24:26","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T19:24:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/?p=828"},"modified":"2026-07-12T19:24:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T19:24:26","slug":"trump-pushes-out-last-federal-election-assistance-commission-members-propublica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/?p=828","title":{"rendered":"Trump Pushes Out Last Federal Election Assistance Commission Members \u2014 ProPublica"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Trump<\/div>

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President Donald Trump has pushed out the three remaining members of the Election Assistance Commission, leaving the bipartisan agency in limbo as he rushes to remake<\/a> how elections are run before this year\u2019s midterms.<\/p>\n

Trump fired Benjamin Hovland and Thomas Hicks, the Democrats on the commission, multiple sources familiar with the matter told ProPublica, which was the first to report the actions on its social media accounts<\/a>. Christy McCormick, the Republican, was allowed to resign, the sources said.<\/p>\n

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Thomas Hicks, center left, and Benjamin Hovland, center right, were fired from the Election Assistance Commission, and Christy McCormick, right, was allowed to resign, according to multiple sources.<\/span> Andrew Harnik\/Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The commission\u2019s unprecedented dismantling alarmed voter advocacy groups and Democratic state election officials, who called the move \u201creckless and irresponsible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe EAC plays a critical role in supporting state and local election officials,\u201d Cisco Aguilar, Nevada\u2019s secretary of state and chair of the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State, said in a statement, \u201cand it will again fall on Secretaries of State and other election administrators to fill the gap.\u201d<\/p>\n

A White House official wouldn\u2019t confirm the specific actions taken but said in a statement to ProPublica that the president \u201creserves the right to remove individuals that may not be totally aligned with the important task of securing America\u2019s elections and ensuring every legal vote is counted.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d the official said.<\/p>\n

Hicks and McCormick did not immediately respond to requests for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hovland, who had been a commissioner since 2019, said in an interview that it was a privilege to serve in the role, and he is hopeful that staff will continue the good work being done at the agency.<\/p>\n

In response to the White House\u2019s comments, he said the commission had been working in a bipartisan way \u201cto find constructive solutions to support election officials in maintaining the security and integrity of our elections.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hovland was in Missouri on Thursday visiting a local election office and an early voting location when he got an email from the White House telling him that he had been fired. He was visiting the office to learn about new measures put in place to protect election workers.<\/p>\n

He said he is proud of the new resources the EAC has created for election workers recently, such as social media templates<\/a> to communicate with voters and decks of cards<\/a> that help train workers on how to respond to Election Day scenarios.<\/p>\n

The commission was established in 2003 to set standards for state voting systems and to provide funding for upgrades.<\/p>\n

Its four-member board is designed to be evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, all nominated by the president at the recommendation of congressional leadership and confirmed by the Senate. The fourth commissioner, Don Palmer, a Republican, resigned in April. By dismissing the commission\u2019s remaining members, Trump can try to put forward replacements who may be more amenable to his demands.<\/p>\n

In March 2025, Trump issued a sweeping executive order<\/a> that directed the EAC to change the national voter registration form \u2014 which serves as the template for the forms in each state \u2014 to require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote. Currently, voters in almost all states attest to their citizenship under penalty of perjury, but they are not required to provide proof.<\/p>\n

The Trump-aligned law firm America First Legal had petitioned the EAC<\/a> to change the form. The EAC posted a notice seeking comments, receiving hundreds of thousands of them<\/a> in response, but had not yet held a vote.<\/p>\n

The Bipartisan Policy Center, a group that advocates on election issues, said the departures are a \u201csignificant loss for one of the federal government\u2019s few institutions explicitly designed around bipartisan governance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The commission has been plagued by partisan infighting and ineffectiveness<\/a>, as well as chronic vacancies and a lack of funding. It\u2019s made some progress in recent years, however, passing new standards for voting machines and creating new resources and recommendations<\/a> for election officials. Often, the commission\u2019s decisions were unanimous despite its partisan split.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump has pushed out the three remaining members of the Election Assistance Commission, leaving the bipartisan agency in limbo as he rushes to remake how elections are run before this year\u2019s midterms. Trump fired Benjamin Hovland and Thomas Hicks, the Democrats on the commission, multiple sources familiar with the matter told ProPublica, which…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":829,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-1428092811_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_quality_95_embedColorProfile_true.jpg?resize=2000,1125","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[1736,1737,1260,622,1738,81,1735,289],"class_list":["post-828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-assistance","tag-commission","tag-election","tag-federal","tag-members","tag-propublica","tag-pushes","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}