A Federal Agency Stripped of Leadership
The U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) is currently leaderless. The federal agency saw its remaining members vanish. Democrats Thomas Hicks and Benjamin Hovland were removed from their posts, while Republican commissioner Christy McCormick resigned, leaving the commission in a total vacuum.
The Independent Mandate Under HAVA
Congress created the EAC under the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA). Its mission is to certify voting systems, develop guidelines for state and local election administration, and maintain the federal voter registration form. The statute mandates structural balance, stipulating that no more than two of the four commissioners may belong to the same political party.
Invoking the Slaughter Precedent
The White House triggered the purge by citing a Supreme Court ruling in the Slaughter case, which ruled that a president has a freer hand to remove members of independent federal agencies. A White House official stated that the administration “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.” The administration maintains that the Slaughter decision gives the President precedence to do so.
Lawmakers Denounce a ‘Political’ Shift
The move has sparked immediate pushback from Capitol Hill. Sen. Alex Padilla of California and Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, the ranking Democrats on committees with jurisdiction over elections, issued a joint statement condemning the action as an attempt to “dismantle yet another independent guardrail of our democracy.” They labeled the timing, just months before the midterms, as a “blatant part of his plan to politicize our elections.”
Governance Experts Sound the Alarm
The institutional fallout is already taking shape. Michael Waldman, president and CEO of the Brennan Center for Justice, warned that the removals leave the agency “without leadership and unable to carry out its major responsibilities.” Matt Weil, vice president of governance at the Bipartisan Policy Center, called the development “unprecedented.” While Weil acknowledged that the EAC has operated without a quorum for much of its existence, he characterized this as “a significant loss for one of the federal government’s few institutions explicitly designed around bipartisan governance.”
Regulatory Uncertainty Ahead
These dismissals arrive as the executive branch attempts to reshape federal election procedures. In 2025, an executive order directed the EAC to add a proof-of-citizenship requirement to the federal voter registration form. Federal judges blocked the order’s main provisions, ruling it exceeded presidential authority. With the commission now devoid of confirmed leadership, the future of its regulatory and advisory functions under the HAVA framework remains uncertain.