4 big takeaways from key federal election commission’s  annual meetings

Chicago — Just months before the 2026 midterms, election officials from across the country gathered this week to meet with a key federal voting panel, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC). 

In the first half of the week, the EAC, a bipartisan commission created to help states administer elections, heard local officials’ concerns about the Supreme Court’s pending decision on mail voting, an alarming new voter registration data initiative.

Toward the end of the meetings, several election officials were left alarmed and angered by the Trump administration’s recent unexplained actions against a federal committee that helps create guidelines for voting equipment.

Democracy Docket was among the few outlets covering the gatherings. Here are four big takeaways you need to know:

1. Local officials wary of pending SCOTUS decision 

During the first day of meetings, local election officials from the EAC’s Local Leadership Council (LLC) said they were very worried the Supreme Court’s pending decision on state grace periods for late-arriving mail ballots could unleash chaos before the upcoming midterm elections.

The court, which is hearing the Republican National Committee’s challenge to Mississippi’s grace period, could send election officials in 14 states and D.C. scrambling to inform voters that they could be disenfranchised if they don’t mail their ballots on time.

One official said the court’s pending decision was “akin to a natural disaster” because they don’t know when or how it will come.

Officials asked the EAC for assistance in informing voters of the potential effects of the court’s decision. However, the commission said its hands were tied until it received a legal interpretation from the Department of Justice of the court’s ruling.

2. ‘ERIC by the Feds’ alarms 

Several LLC members were also alarmed by a proposed resolution that would ask the EAC to pursue the creation of an expansive voter registration data-sharing network between states.

Many voter registration data exchange initiatives already exist, like the nonpartisan Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), but the network proposed this week would be the first located inside, and partially funded by, the federal government.

Several officials said they opposed the federal government’s involvement in the exchange of voter registration data between states, saying the prospect raised severe privacy concerns and security risks.

The proposal comes as the Trump administration has embarked on an effort to create a national voter registration list — a vast trove of election data the federal government has never had and that it likely lacks the authority to collate and maintain.

After Democracy Docket reported on officials’ concerns about the proposed network, the LLC tabled the resolution until its annual meeting next year. Despite the decision to postpone an official vote on it, the resolution is technically still active.

3. ‘I don’t want to talk’

Christy McCormick, the EAC’s Republican vice-chair, really did not want to talk to Democracy Docket this week. She said she had calls to make and lunch to eat.

It wasn’t surprising. Last year, we broke news on the conspiratorial rant she made against Democrats during a panel with a Trump-aligned organization. She claimed Democrats promote and rely on votes from “illegal citizens” to win elections. 

Asked Wednesday if she regretted her comments, McCormick did tell us one thing: her comments, apparently, were under “some sort of investigation.” Asked if she could specify what investigation she was referring to, she politely declined. The EAC also did not clarify her statement.

In an interview with Democracy Docket, Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read again called for McCormick’s resignation, saying, “If that’s how she really feels, she should not be in this role.”

“This is supposed to be bipartisan,” Read said of the EAC. “This is supposed to be about how we do the technical work of making sure that every eligible person’s vote is counted and reflected.

4. Blocking the experts

By the end of the week, election officials were stunned to learn the Trump administration has been quietly blocking appointments to the Technical Guidelines Development Committee (TGDC) — a key federal committee that helps set standards for voting machines.

The unexplained rejections — described by one official as “crazy” — have sidelined bipartisan experts from TGDC, the body responsible for shaping the rules that determine which voting systems are certified and used nationwide.

Officials warned the move could have far-reaching consequences: without full representation, the committee risks approving flawed or insecure systems — or missing critical recommendations to keep voting accessible and safe.

The blocked appointments are unprecedented in the committee’s two-decade history and come as federal officials are already under pressure to implement changes to voting system standards tied to Trump’s 2025 anti-voting executive order. 

“It’s not a partisan committee,” one official emphasized. “If you don’t have the right experts guiding that, it puts the entire process at risk.”

With nearly half the panel’s seats now vacant, officials warned the group is operating without full expertise or representation, raising concerns that critical perspectives — including on cybersecurity — are being left out of decisions.