President Donald Trump has ousted members of a bipartisan federal election commission that resisted his efforts to require would-be voters to document their U.S. citizenship before registering. <\/p>\n
The White House on Friday confirmed the executive action against members of the Election Assistance Commission, which distributes federal grants to states, oversees the testing of voting systems and maintains the national voter registration form. <\/p>\n
Though the move likely won\u2019t have major effects on the November midterms, it\u2019s the latest instance of the Republican president trying to exert White House influence over how U.S. elections are conducted, and it\u2019s the first test of his newly expanded presidential power after the Supreme Court ruled recently that the president can fire members of independent agency boards without cause. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe President, and head of the Executive Branch, reserves the right to remove individuals that may not be totally aligned with the important task of securing America\u2019s elections and ensuring every legal vote is counted. The Slaughter decision gives the President precedence to do so,\u201d said a White House statement to AP. <\/p>\n
The president removed the four-seat commission\u2019s two Democratic members, Thomas Hicks and Benjamin Hovland. The panel\u2019s Republican member, Christy McCormick resigned. Former Republican commissioner Donald Palmer already had left his post voluntarily earlier this year. The changes were first reported by VoteBeat, a news outlet that covers elections and voting across the U.S,<\/p>\n
Trump has repeatedly tried to reshape voting regulations, even though the U.S. Constitution grants control of elections to the states and not the president. Citing that separation of powers, courts<\/a>have<\/a>blocked most of Trump\u2019s two executive orders<\/a> that sought to reshape voting. Trump has also launched an investigation of his 2020 loss<\/a>, which he continues to falsely insist<\/a> was due to fraud, and this week his administration threatened states<\/a> if they did not try to purge what federal officials believe are noncitizens from their voter rolls.<\/p>\n Still, Trump has largely been powerless to change election processes through executive fiat and David Becker, a former Department of Justice attorney who runs the Center for Election Innovation & Research, said his purge of the EAC wouldn\u2019t alter that. <\/p>\n \u201cThis doesn\u2019t really change anything about how our elections will be run, and how states are successfully ensuring secure, convenient, safe elections,\u201d Becker wrote on the social media site BlueSky Friday morning.<\/p>\n Critics accuse Trump of damaging voters\u2019 trust <\/p>\n On Capitol Hill, the leading Democrats with election oversight responsibility said Trump, rather than bolstering U.S. election integrity, is further politicizing the voting process. <\/p>\n \u201cPresident Trump is trying to dismantle yet another independent guardrail of our democracy designed to keep elections fair and secure,\u201d said Sen. Alex Padilla, D-California, and Rep. Joe Morelle, D-New York. \u201cPurging commissioners just months before the midterm elections and further gutting support for our state and local elections officials is a blatant part of his plan to politicize our elections and enable more unlawful and dangerous election interference.\u201d<\/p>\n Padilla is the ranking member of the Senate Rules Committee, and Morelle is ranking member of the House Administration Committee. <\/p>\n The lawmakers noted that the Supreme Court\u2019s conservative majority enabled Trump\u2019s move with its decision to \u201cupend decades of executive power to appease the President.\u201d<\/p>\n Staff at the Election Assistance Commission did not immediately respond Friday to a request for comment on the agency\u2019s operations moving forward. <\/p>\n While the White House statement did not offer a specific reason for Trump\u2019s action, the commission has previously declined to change the national voter registration form to require documentation of an applicant\u2019s U.S. citizenship, as Trump\u2019s urged in a sweeping March 2025 executive order on U.S. elections<\/a>. Though the form itself does not require citizenship documents, voter registration materials from the agency do state clearly that it already is illegal to falsely claim U.S. citizenship to vote. <\/p>\n A federal judge blocked the order<\/a>, ruling it exceeded the president\u2019s authority since the U.S. Constitution grants authority over elections management and oversight to Congress and the states. The administration has indicated it will appeal. <\/p>\n Trump hasn\u2019t said whether he\u2019ll pick new members<\/p>\n It was not clear whether Trump planned to nominate new members immediately or leave the positions vacant \u2014 a move that, months ahead of midterm elections, could prevent the agency from distributing new grants to state or local elections offices and perhaps complicate its role in overseeing testing and certification of voting systems around the country. <\/p>\n \u201cThe Administration from the start has been working across all agencies and local partners to safeguard elections from fraud and abuse, and investing in a strong infrastructure to sustain that mission especially in the midterm elections,\u201d the White House said. <\/p>\n