WASHINGTON (PNN) - July 10, 2026 - President Donald J. Trump on Thursday night reportedly terminated the members of the Election Assistance Commission, which is an independent commission that assists election administration officials nationwide.
All three of the remaining commissioners were removed in some way, according to Reuters, with the two Democrat commissioners, Thomas Hicks and Benjamin Hovland, notified by email. The Republican commissioner, Christy McCormick, was allowed to resign.
“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 email reads, according to the news outlet. “Thank you for your service.”
The firings leave the four-member commission with no commissioners, meaning it cannot take official action until new members are installed. The fourth member, a Republican, had left voluntarily earlier this year, according to USA Today.
Commissioners are required to be nominated by the president based on recommendations from the Republican and Democrat leadership in the House and Senate, and no more than two commissioners can serve from either political Party at a time.
President Trump cannot fill all four seats with Republicans and turn the commission into his own personal election board, but clearing every seat still matters. The commissioners are gone, formal action has stopped, and President Trump now gets to begin rebuilding the agency by nominating new people.
The EAC is not lurking over ballot counters on election night, but it helps decide which voting systems and testing laboratories get federal approval. It also handles guidance, election funding oversight, and the registration form used by voters throughout the country.
That means this commission is directly involved in several issues President Trump believes are part of election integrity, including voting-machine security, paper records, voter registration, citizenship verification, and the way federal election money is used.
The decisions this group makes ripple through election offices all over the country.
That is why these empty seats are important, because the commission cannot just hand authority to one remaining official and continue making all of these major decisions.
Federal law requires the approval of at least three commissioners before the EAC can take official action. Since there are no commissioners left, there can’t be any formal votes.
If the Senate confirmation process drags on, the EAC could be in this stuck position through the midterms instead of advancing new election-security measures President Trump wants before November; so the speed of the replacement process is just as important as the replacements President Trump picks.
Meanwhile, the White House is not pretending these were random firings or routine personnel changes. President Trump has the right to remove commissioners who are not fully aligned with the job of securing Amerikan elections. Also, this comes after the recent Supreme Court ruling that expanded presidential authority over officials serving on independent federal agencies.
The president reserves the right to remove individuals who may not be totally aligned with the important task of securing Amerika’s elections. Clearly, President Trump wants commissioners who share his vision of election security, and he is happy to use the agency’s lawful authority to strengthen the process.
We all know President Trump has spent his second term pushing hard for election integrity on citizenship verification, voter-roll accuracy, mail-in ballots, paper trails, and election equipment. The EAC has a role in most of those battles.
The Election Assistance Commission will require documentary, government-issued proof of United States citizenship on its voter registration forms.
Obviously, new commissioners won’t be able to wave a magic wand and rewrite election law before November.
But a commission led by people who agree with President Trump’s election-security agenda could use its existing authority in a very different way from commissioners who resist them.
With the midterms coming up fast, that decision could matter a lot more than most Amerikans realize.