‘Dangerous … reckless … desperate’: Trump’s firing of EAC leaders escalates his war on voting, election chiefs and lawmakers warn 

Following reports that President Donald Trump fired the leadership on the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), lawmakers, election officials and voting rights advocates are sounding the alarm that the move is another blatant attempt by the president to meddle with voting in the months before midterms.

“President Trump is trying to dismantle yet another independent guardrail of our democracy designed to keep elections fair and secure,” Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Rep. Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.) said in a joint statement. “Purging commissioners just months before the midterm elections and further gutting support for our state and local elections officials is a blatant part of his plan to politicize our elections and enable more unlawful and dangerous election interference.”

In a late Thursday notice from the White House, Thomas Hicks and Ben Hovland — the two Democratic members of the EAC’s four-person commission — were told that their positions were immediately terminated. Christy McCormick, a Republican member of the federal agency, was allowed to resign. Donald Palmer, a Republican and the agency’s fourth commissioner, resigned from his position in April.

The EAC is a bipartisan federal agency that was set up to help states administer elections by issuing crucial guidelines and resources on voting policies, election best practices and equipment certification. But without four commissioners leading the agency, it leaves states with a huge resource gap as they prepare for the midterm elections. 

“The EAC has been a vital tool for many states and county boards of elections for training, let alone the [Voluntary Voting System Guidelines], where many states rely on those guidelines to certify their election equipment,” Dustin Czarny, the elections commissioner for Onondaga County, New York, and a member of the EAC’s local leadership council, told Democracy Docket. 

“If this is a prolonged absence… then training is going to come to a halt. The new guidelines are going to come to a halt as we’re trying to certify new equipment. There’s just a ton of things that could be impacted by this.”

Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar (D) slammed Trump’s move, warning that dismissing the EAC’s leadership months before midterms will put election officials in a huge bind. 

“President Trump’s decision to remove sitting Election Assistance Commissioners less than six months before the election is incredibly irresponsible,” Aguilar said in a statement. “The EAC plays a critical role in supporting state and local election officials, and it will again fall on Secretaries of State and other election administrators to fill the gap. From cutting funding for cybersecurity to launching baseless investigations, this pattern of behavior from the Trump administration makes it harder for our election officials to do their work and does nothing to make elections more secure.”

Other state election chiefs joined Aguilar in denouncing Trump’s move. 

“This is yet another attempt by the president to disrupt and sow distrust in our elections. It’s dangerous, it’s reckless, and frankly it’s desperate,” Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read (D) said in a statement to Democracy Docket. “The president is looking for any opportunity to seize control over the upcoming election because he is afraid of facing real accountability from voters.”

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes (D) said in a statement it was “irresponsible and dangerous” for the Trump administration to dismantle the EAC’s leadership. 

“The U.S. EAC is an independent, bipartisan commission tasked with helping election officials improve the administration of elections and help Americans participate in the voting process,” Fontes said. “It is irresponsible and dangerous that this Administration remains dead set on causing chaos for our election officials across this country. This move undermines the integrity of nonpartisan election administration.”

Celina Stewart, the CEO of the pro-voting group the League of Women Voters said in a statement that firing the EAC’s commissioners is an attack on election infrastructure and warned that the move is part of Trump’s broader effort to undermine the midterm vote. 

“This extraordinary action strips the EAC of its bipartisan leadership at a moment when election officials need support, stability, and protection from political pressure,” Stewart said. “The American people deserve elections administered by trusted professionals, not shaped by political interference. This is not a routine personnel decision — it is a dangerous escalation in the effort to weaken the safeguards that protect free and fair elections in the November midterms.”

Although dismantling the EAC’s leadership escalates concerns of the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to take over elections, Pamela Smith, the president and CEO of Verified Voting, noted that the president’s authority is limited when it comes to administering elections. 

“Election administration doesn’t stop because the President fired the EAC commissioners,” Smith said in a statement. “Thousands of state and local officials run our elections, and that fundamental fact hasn’t changed. The EAC supports election administration but does not conduct elections, so the absence of commissioners does not alter who is responsible for the 2026 midterms. We had elections before there were commissioners, and we’ll have successful Midterms without them, because the states are prepared.”

Czarny echoed Smith’s sentiment and dismissed the broad concerns that Trump’s latest move could be a major disruption to the midterm elections. 

“Luckily elections are run at the local level, at the county level, and at the state level,” Czarny said. “Ignoring the EAC will not necessarily impact the midterm elections. They don’t have a role in the certification of election results.”