Dems ‘Need the Votes’ of ‘Illegal Citizens,’ Top Federal Election Official Claims in Unhinged Rant

A top federal voting official is facing a call to step down after accusing Democrats of encouraging “open borders” and widespread voting by “illegal citizens,” because “they need the votes.”

The outlandish conspiracy theory is common on the far right. But its embrace by Christy McCormick, a Republican member of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC), part of an unhinged public rant against Democrats, raises serious questions about her ability to help states administer fair and impartial elections, and to retain public trust.

“They need the votes. They’re losing ground,” McCormick said Wednesday at a panel discussion on voting at the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute (AFPI), when asked why she thinks the left opposes measures to tighten voting rules. “Everybody is seeing how people are going toward the right. They are progressively going left and over the cliff to socialism and communism. As we see with the Mamdani — or, is that his name? Mamdani in New York. This is dangerous for this country and I think a lot of people see that and are moving toward the right.”

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

Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read (D) called for McCormick to resign.

“It’s un-American to spread lies that sow fear and paranoia in the heart of our democracy,” Read said in a statement to Democracy Docket. “Our founders built this nation on free and fair elections. Generations of Americans fought and died to defend them. Commissioner McCormick’s false claims dishonor that sacrifice. She betrayed the trust of the people she was meant to serve. She must resign or be removed immediately. America’s light is dimming because rot like this is spreading — and it’s up to us to stop it.”

Read, a member of the EAC’s Standards Board, later issued a press release on the subject.

Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows (D) called McCormick’s comments “unacceptable.”

“The EAC has always played an important role in convening the states in a nonpartisan way to advance best practices in elections,” Bellows said in a statement to Democracy Docket. “All states are committed to the principle that only United States citizens can vote in federal elections, and for a Commissioner to cast aspersion on the states by suggesting otherwise is unacceptable.”

Rick Hasen, an election law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, called McCormick’s comments “despicable.”

EAC commissioners are subject to heightened restrictions on political activity via the Hatch Act, which limits federal government employees’ involvement in partisan politics. Those covered under the law may not use their official titles while engaged in political activity. 

McCormick was introduced at the AFPI event, and spoke at it, as an EAC commissioner. 

An EAC spokeswoman responded to an inquiry about McCormick’s comments with an auto-response saying she’s currently furloughed because of the federal government shutdown.

Other panelists at the AFPI event also used the question to attack Democrats. 

“They have swallowed all the narrative about racism and conspiracies and they’re in the fever swamp,” said right-wing voting activist Christian Adams.

Rep. Bryan Steil (R-Wisc.) spoke about “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

But only McCormick said explicitly that Democrats are deliberately encouraging illegal voting to win elections. And only McCormick is a federal election official charged with helping to ensure free and fair elections that voters can have confidence in.

This isn’t the first time McCormick has taken steps that could undermine confidence in her impartiality. In 2020, she appeared along with EAC chair Donald Palmer on a podcast hosted by Catherine Engelbrecht of True the Vote, a leader of the effort to raise fears about illegal voting.

But McCormick stopped far short in that appearance of embracing the conspiracy theory she spread Wednesday.

AFPI, an influential conservative think tank founded in 2021 that has close ties to the Trump administration, has worked to advance and promote a suite of restrictive voting policies. Its original CEO, Brooke Rollins, is now U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.

Matt Cohen contributed reporting.

This story has been updated.