{"id":49136,"date":"2026-07-11T12:39:32","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T19:39:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=49136"},"modified":"2026-07-11T12:39:34","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T19:39:34","slug":"a-pathetic-power-grab-trump-purges-bipartisan-election-assistance-commission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/07\/11\/a-pathetic-power-grab-trump-purges-bipartisan-election-assistance-commission\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A Pathetic Power Grab\u2019: Trump Purges Bipartisan Election Assistance Commission"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Election<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Election Assistance Commission officials Thomas Hicks and Christy McCormick appeared at a House hearing on May 20, 2026 in Washington, DC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0(Photo by Andrew Harnik\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis move undermines the integrity of nonpartisan election administration,\u201d said Arizona\u2019s secretary of state.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Jake Johnson<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jul 10, 2026 (CommonDreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

US President Donald Trump<\/a> late Thursday forced out the remaining three members of an independent, bipartisan commission that assists state election officials across the country, a move that critics condemned as a \u201cpathetic power grab\u201d ahead of the 2026 midterms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two Democratic members of the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), Benjamin Hovland and Thomas Hicks, were fired, and Republican Commissioner Christy McCormick resigned at the White House\u2019s request, according to ProPublica<\/a>. The agency, established by Congress more than two decades ago, now lacks leadership and any ability to make decisions, just months before the 2026 elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The EAC, as its website<\/a> states, is \u201can independent, bipartisan commission whose mission is to help election officials improve the administration of elections and help Americans participate in the voting process.\u201d In an executive order last year, Trump ordered the EAC to implement proof-of-citizenship requirements in the federal voter registration process, along with other changes. The president\u2019s effort to impose his policy demands on the EAC was mostly blocked<\/a> in federal court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump, who has said he wants his administration to \u201ctake over\u201d voting nationwide ahead of the 2026 midterms, has since taken other steps that watchdogs and Democratic lawmakers say amount to an attempt to preemptively subvert the coming elections, including a sweeping assault on mail-in voting\u2014which is also facing legal challenges<\/a>. Legislatively, Trump is pushing Republicans<\/a> to pass the SAVE America Act, a bill that experts say would prevent millions of Americans from voting<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael Waldman, president and CEO of the Brennan Center for Justice, said Thursday\u2019s EAC firings \u201care deeply concerning in light of President Trump\u2019s relentless efforts to try to interfere in elections.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese removals leave the agency without leadership and unable to carry out its major responsibilities,\u201d said Waldman. \u201cThe guardrails Congress placed on this agency are clear and must be followed: The Election Assistance Commission was designed to be bipartisan with four members, no more than two of which can be from the same political party. The agency cannot make any significant decisions or take any significant actions unless three confirmed commissioners agree. Until bipartisan replacements are confirmed, the agency cannot lawfully make any decisions that affect how Americans vote.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen<\/a>, said Trump\u2019s termination of EAC commissioners underscores that \u201che\u2019s scared of the voting power of the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis move is another pathetic attempt to sow doubt in our elections, which are safely and expertly run by states and localities,\u201d said Gilbert. \u201cThis agency deserves a steady hand and expert leadership. That said, it is important for voters to know that states and localities, not the EAC, run our elections. Even more importantly, it is the voters who decide who takes office.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The EAC firings came less than two weeks after the conservative-dominated US Supreme Court<\/a> handed Trump the power to purge<\/a> independent agencies at will with its Trump v. Slaughter<\/em> ruling, erasing around 90 years of precedent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Election law expert Rick Hasen warned<\/a> in a blog post on Thursday that Trump \u201ccould try to direct the commissioner-less EAC to do his bidding, for example by stating that the EAC must amend the federal voter registration form that states must accept for federal elections to include documentary proof of citizenship.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTrump\u2019s first voting-related EO tried to do this, and he was stymied. But that was acting through the commissioners and before the Slaughter<\/em> case,\u201d Hasen noted. \u201cIf he tries anything like this, it will be high-profile and very important litigation that will end up at the Supreme Court<\/a> on the emergency docket over the summer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adrian Fontes, Arizona\u2019s Democratic secretary of state, said in a statement late Thursday that the EAC purge was \u201cirresponsible and dangerous,\u201d accusing the administration of remaining \u201cdead set on causing chaos for our election officials across this country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis move undermines the integrity of nonpartisan election administration,\u201d Fontes added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jake Johnson<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jake Johnson is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Election Assistance Commission officials Thomas Hicks and Christy McCormick appeared at a House hearing on May 20, 2026 in Washington, DC. \u00a0(Photo by Andrew Harnik\/Getty Images) \u201cThis move undermines the integrity of nonpartisan election administration,\u201d said Arizona\u2019s secretary of state. Jake Johnson Jul 10, 2026 (CommonDreams.org) US President Donald Trump late Thursday… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2088],"tags":[2179],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49136"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49136"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49137,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49136\/revisions\/49137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}