Is It A Bad Thing That Trump Just Gutted The 'Election Assistance Commission'?
Trick question! Everything he does is bad! Only real question is 'how bad was it?'
With just 112 days left until the midterm elections, Donald Trump has eliminated all the members of the four-person bipartisan Election Assistance Commission, which helps states conduct their elections freely and fairly. Trump shitcanned the two Democrats on the commission, but let the one remaining Republican resign. (The commission’s other Republican resigned earlier this year to take a job at the Heritage Foundation.) Because states run their own elections, gutting the EAC won’t necessarily rig the midterms for Republicans, but Trump’s firings remove a key source of information and coordination that states have come to rely on for administering elections.
As Votebeat, which broke the story Thursday, explains:
[The EAC] was created by Congress after the 2000 election to help states improve election administration without federalizing elections. Its role is mostly supportive: distributing federal election funds, maintaining the national mail voter registration form, testing and certifying voting systems, and offering best practices and guidance to state and local election officials.
So while it isn’t directly involved in doing elections, it’s an information and best-practices clearinghouse for state officials, which is probably some kind of socialism. The EAC also distributes election security grants, which Trump no doubt thinks is dirty George Soros money when it goes to blue states, but vitally important in red ones.
Long before this week’s firings, Trump was already demanding that the EAC comply with various votefuckery schemes he wanted, although his efforts have so far been blocked by federal judges. In March 2025, Trump signed an executive order put in front of him by someone with a functioning evil brain, telling the commission to change the national voter registration form to require proof of citizenship. He also tried to order the EAC to withhold grant funds from states that didn’t require proof of citizenship for voter registration. We suppose next Trump will demand the impeachment of the judges who blocked the orders.
The firings came right after the Supreme Court greatly expanded Trump’s power to shitcan members of previously “independent” agencies and commissions created by Congress with the intent of making them less subject to presidential whims. An unnamed White House official bragged to Politico that the Trump v. Slaughter decision means Trump “reserves the right to remove individuals that may not be totally aligned with the important task of securing America’s elections and ensuring every legal vote is counted,” by which of course the administration means “for Republicans.”
As Politico reports, the removal of the commissioners is making elections officials worried about the fallout, and about what Trump may try next. Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes (D) said in a statement that it’s “irresponsible and dangerous that this Administration remains dead set on causing chaos for our election officials across this country,” adding that the move “undermines the integrity of nonpartisan election administration.”
Politico also says that recently, per an anonymous insider, “the commissioners had been briefing state and local election officials on how to defend against cyberattacks on elections systems from foreign actors. It’s unclear if those briefings will continue, the person said.”
Which is of course the point: Trump knows that voting is too important to be left up to the voters, which is why he keeps talking openly about “federalizing” elections so they’ll be under the control of Republicans, even if that’s completely unconstitutional. Besides, he was only “joking,” he says.
Fortunately, as Votebeat points out, there’s at least a hint of a silver lining to Trump’s purge. Granted, with no members, the EAC won’t be able to do much of its regular work, which is on the “damned important” side. The commission “oversees the federal testing and certification program for voting systems, accrediting labs and certifying whether machines meet federal standards known as the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines. Many states rely on that certification before allowing voting equipment to be purchased or used.”
BUT without any commissioners. the commission also can’t carry out the changes to federal voting forms Trump has demanded, or change voting standards before the midterms. Under the law that created the EAC, there must be two Republican and two Democratic commissioners, and they have to be confirmed by the Senate. That law also “does not appear to create a separate shortcut for temporary commissioners” outside Senate confirmation.
That ought to prevent Trump from trying to plop some compliant placeholders into the vacant seats in an “acting” capacity. At this point, though, there’s no telling what the Supremes might let him get away with, up to and including appointing two Heritage Foundation stooges who change their registration to “D” for the Great Man.
We’ll keep you updated!
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Good news is, Trump and his minions seem to be really scared about the midterms.
It always bears repeating to the doomers who think it’s all futile and there’s no recovery from this.
If Trump truly thought he could fix the election in his favor, he wouldn’t be engaged in all of this ticky tack bullshit.