President Donald Trump has ousted the three remaining members of the Election Assistance Commission, leaving the bipartisan body in limbo as he rushes to overhaul how elections are run ahead of this year’s midterm elections.
Trump fired Democrats Benjamin Hovland and Thomas Hicks, multiple sources familiar with the matter told ProPublica, which first reported the behavior on its social media accounts. Republican Christie McCormick’s resignation has been accepted, sources said.
Thomas Hicks (centre-left) and Benjamin Hovland (centre-right) have been fired from the campaign committee, and Christy McCormick (right) has accepted her resignation, according to multiple sources. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
The unprecedented dismantling of the commission alarmed voter advocacy groups and Democratic state election officials, who criticized the move as “reckless and irresponsible.”
“The EAC plays an important role in supporting state and local election officials,” Cisco Aguilar, Nevada’s secretary of state and president of the Democratic Secretaries of State Association, said in a statement. “It will once again be the responsibility of the secretary of state and other election officials to bridge the gap.”
White House officials did not specify specific actions, but in a statement to ProPublica said the president “reserves the right to remove individuals who may not fully agree with the important mission of securing America’s elections and ensuring that every legal vote is counted.”
“From the beginning, the administration has worked with all agencies and local partners to protect elections from fraud and fraud, and has invested in strong infrastructure to sustain that mission, especially during the midterm elections,” the official said.
Hicks and McCormick did not respond to requests for comment. Hovland declined to comment on his firing.
The commission was created in 2003 to set standards for state voting systems and provide funding for upgrades.
The board’s four members are designed to be evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, and all are nominated by the president with the recommendation of Congressional leadership and confirmed by the Senate. A fourth commissioner, Republican Don Palmer, resigned in April. By firing the remaining members of the committee, President Trump could try to install replacements more likely to comply with his demands.
In March 2025, President Trump issued a sweeping executive order directing the EAC to change each state’s voter registration form (which serves as a template for each state’s form) and to require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote. Currently, voters in nearly every state attest to their citizenship under penalty of perjury, but are not required to provide any evidence.
Trump-aligned law firm America First Legal had petitioned the EAC to change the format. The EAC posted a notice seeking comments, which received hundreds of thousands of comments, but no votes had yet been taken.
The Bipartisan Policy Center, an election advocacy group, said the departure is a “significant loss to one of the few branches of the federal government that is explicitly committed to bipartisan governance.”
The commission has been plagued by partisan infighting, incompetence, chronic vacancies and underfunding. However, it has made some progress in recent years, including passing new standards for voting machines and creating new resources and recommendations for election officials. In many cases, the committee’s decisions were unanimous, despite party divisions.
