Trump fires Election Assistance Commission leaders
By Sean Lyngaas, Tierney Sneed, CNN
(CNN) — The White House on Thursday fired the leadership of the federal agency that provides funding and security guidance to election officials, according to sources familiar with the matter and an email reviewed by CNN — a move that’s already raising alarm bells among election officials about federal interference ahead of the midterms.
“On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as Commissioner of the Election Assistance Commission is terminated, effective immediately,” said an email from a White House official that went to at least one of the fired EAC commissioners. “Thank you for your service.”
CNN has requested comment from the White House and from the EAC.
With the Trump administration having gutted the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the EAC is one of the few remaining federal entities tasked with providing election security support to states. Created by Congress in 2002, the agency is meant to be bipartisan. It certifies voting equipment and has administered hundreds of millions of dollars in federal support for elections.
The EAC has also been in the awkward position of trying not to draw the president’s ire while also standing up for election officials who have faced violent threats because of conspiracy theories pushed by the president. Some election officials feel the agency has fallen short on the latter.
“It is irresponsible and dangerous that this administration remains dead set on causing chaos for our election officials across this country,” Adrian Fontes, the Democratic secretary of state of Arizona, said in a statement reacting to the EAC purge. “This move undermines the integrity of nonpartisan election administration.”
A recent Supreme Court decision bolstering a president’s power to fire leaders of independent agencies had many in the election community fearing for the future of the EAC.
The commission was also a target of the first executive order Trump signed seeking to overhaul elections in 2025. It directed the EAC to add a proof of citizenship requirement to federal forms for voter registration, while ordering the commission to pressure states to adopt Election Day mail ballot deadlines.
The executive order was largely blocked in court, with multiple judges concluding Trump did not have the unilateral authority to order the commission to change voter registration requirements. Still, Trump has remained focused on implementing nationwide proof of citizenship requirements, while his prized legislation to do so has floundered in Congress.
“The EAC has been a dead man walking since the Slaughter decision— really since the executive order last year,” one former EAC official told CNN, referring to the Supreme Court decision. “Today’s firings make this even more clear. Congress would have never created a federal agency with the EAC’s mandate that wasn’t independent and insulated from White House direction. RIP EAC.”
The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, a left-leaning organization that supports voting rights, condemned the firings, noting that they left “the agency without leadership and unable to carry out its major responsibilities.”
“Today’s terminations are deeply concerning in light of President Trump’s relentless efforts to try to interfere in elections,” said a statement from the group’s president, Michael Waldman.
The-CNN-Wire
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