Trump ousts bipartisan commission in latest effort to reshape elections before midterm

WASHINGTON— This week, President Trump fired all remaining members of the bipartisan U.S. Election Assistance Commission; This was his latest move to gain control over national elections in the final months before the by-election.

The White House defended the move, justified by a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that gives the president more power to reshape independent government institutions, including replacing appointed leaders.

Democrats and some independent election experts have argued that this is politically motivated, against the interests of voters and crazy with the November election so close.

“Purging commissioners and further reducing support for our state and local election officials just months before the midterm elections is an obvious part of his plan to politicize our elections and enable more illegal and dangerous election interference,” said Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the Senate Rules Committee, which oversees federal elections.

Padilla claimed the impeachments were an attempt by Trump to “dismantle yet another independent barrier to our democracy designed to keep elections fair and secure.”

A White House official framed the dismissals in a completely different light, saying the dismissed commissioners “were not fully aligned with the important mission of securing America’s elections and ensuring that every legal vote is counted.” It was not stated when the president plans to appoint new commission members.

The four-member commission was created by Congress in 2002 as part of the Helping America Vote Act to help states improve voting systems and voter access. According to the law, more than two commission members cannot be members of the same political party.

Historically, it has provided voluntary guidance and best practices for voting systems and served as a sort of clearinghouse for nationwide election performance so states and localities can learn from each other.

The board has spent more than $1 billion in election security grants since 2018, according to the report. A report by the Bipartisan Policy Center. These grants are then used to protect IT systems from foreign and domestic cyberattacks, update voting systems, ensure the accuracy of voter rolls, and maintain the integrity of ballots after they are cast.

Without leadership, the panel cannot take any formal action until new members are nominated and confirmed by the Senate.

Benjamin W. Hovland, one of the Democratic commissioners fired by Trump, told NBC News that taking away a key federal agency designed to assist state and local election administrators would have a negative impact on already strained election officials.

“If you ask more and more people without giving the necessary resources, mistakes will happen,” he said.

California Secretary of State Shirley Weber told The Times that Trump “injected needless chaos, confusion and instability into the systems Americans rely on to make their voices heard,” but that California “will not be afraid or deterred” from pursuing elections “in which all can participate fairly and safely.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said in X that “Newsom’s efforts to protect elections are becoming more important by the day”; This was a reference to his recent push for state legislation in California that would make it a crime for anyone to seize ballots before the ballot is certified.

Newsom said Thursday that Trump’s efforts to gain control over the election represent a “five-alarm fire” that must be confronted.

“If we are not careful about election security, we will lose this country,” he said.

Trump’s disbanding of the commission comes as he wages a much broader campaign to rewrite voting rules. He sought to impose new restrictions on mail-in voting, improve voter ID and proof of citizenship requirements for voters, subject state voter rolls to federal oversight and purge, and establish federal control over how and whether the U.S. Postal Service delivers mail ballots.

Much of this agenda, imposed through executive orders and other executive actions, has been blocked by the courts and stalled in Congress, where it lacks support.

Experts said it remains unclear whether Trump’s move to disband and reestablish the commission will provide an effective way to set his election agenda or face its own court challenges.

Rick Hasen, an election law expert and director of the Project on Protecting Democracy at UCLA Law, wrote that Trump could illegally try to direct the commission to “do his bidding” by changing the federal voter registration form to require proof of citizenship.

“If he attempts something like this, this will be a high-profile and very important case that will end up on the Supreme Court emergency docket over the summer,” Hasen wrote.

Michael Waldman, president and managing director of NYU Law’s Brennan Center for Justice, said in a statement that Trump’s firings were “deeply concerning” in light of his “relentless efforts to interfere with the election.”

But he also said the “guardrails” Congress put on the commission remain intact, requiring it to be comprised of a bipartisan group and preventing Trump from directing it to implement his own voting agenda.

Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said Trump’s removal of the commissioners was part of the president’s broader effort to “sow distrust in our voting system so that he can challenge the results if they are not to his liking.”

Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, said the commission’s very name makes clear that it “is designed to assist state and local governments, not dictate what states and local governments should do” regarding elections. He said California has the “robustest standards” for elections in the country, and that won’t change with the removal of commissioners.

Still, news of the firings spread quickly, he said during a conference of county election officials in San Diego on Thursday; Some wondered whether the dismissals would threaten federal funding for election administration, while others lamented the loss of existing commissioners’ deep experience.

Dean Logan, head of the L.A. County Registrar/County Clerk’s office, told The Times that “any sudden change in support structure for elections in the middle of the election cycle is concerning” but that California “has a strong local and state base for election administration and voting systems support, which will minimize potential disruptions caused by this action.”

In recent months, Trump has used federal agencies to overhaul the nation’s voting rules in ways no previous president has attempted. He has repeatedly pressured Republican lawmakers to pass a federal law that would force voters to provide proof of citizenship when registering, show identification when voting, and force states to send voter data to the Department of Homeland Security.

Republican leaders have said the proposed Save America Act does not have enough votes to pass the Senate. The GOP’s resistance angered Trump, who said Friday he was refusing to sign a bipartisan housing bill in protest.

The housing bill, which Trump called a “stretch” this month, will become law at midnight Friday without Trump’s signature.