Top federal election official says her conspiratorial rant against Democrats is being investigated

Chicago — Christy McCormick, the Republican vice-chair of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC), told Democracy Docket Wednesday that her inflammatory comments against Democrats last year are under “investigation.”

During a panel discussion in October with the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute (AFPI), McCormick falsely claimed that Democrats actively promote and rely on voting by “illegal citizens” to win elections.

“They need the votes. They’re losing ground,” McCormick said when asked why she thinks the “left” opposes measures to tighten voting rules. “Everybody is seeing how people are going toward the right.”

“They need open borders, they need illegal citizens to increase their votes,” she continued. “And this is why they’re fighting so adamantly against us.”

At the time, McCormick was appearing on the panel in her official capacity as a commissioner of the EAC, an independent agency that helps all states — including those led by Democrats — administer fair and impartial elections. 

Asked Wednesday at an EAC conference here whether she regretted those comments or would like to clarify them, McCormick said: “I’m not going to get into that. It’s under some sort of investigation.”

Asked what investigation she was referring to, McCormick said: “I don’t want to talk. Thank you.”

In December, Democracy Defenders Fund (DDF), a nonpartisan legal advocacy group founded by lawyer and former Obama administration official Norm Eisen, filed a complaint against McCormick with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC). It asked the OSC to investigate whether McCormick’s statements potentially violated the Hatch Act, which generally prohibits federal employees from leveraging their offices for partisan ends.

In an email, DDF told Democracy Docket that it did not receive a response to its complaint to the OSC. But Jonathan Barry-Blocker, the fund’s senior policy counsel, said he was still pleased that the complaint may have pushed “the EAC to initiate an investigation and remind Commissioner McCormick of her duty to be impartial and apolitical when it comes to election administration.”

“The commission’s leaders should not spread reckless — and demonstrably false — remarks,” Barry-Blocker said in a statement. “Election experts across the political spectrum, and most importantly lawful American voters, have repeatedly shown that for decades U.S. elections were administered securely, impartially, and fairly. We await more information from the investigators.”

An EAC spokesperson did not immediately respond to Democracy Docket’s request for more information. 

McCormick has faced calls from Senate Democrats and state election officials to resign over the comments.