# Election Assistance Commission The **Election Assistance Commission (EAC)** is an independent, bipartisan federal agency created by the [[Help America Vote Act]] of 2002 in the aftermath of the [[2000 Presidential Election]] debacle. It is the only federal agency devoted solely to election administration. Its mandate: certify voting systems, develop voluntary voting-system guidelines, administer federal election-infrastructure grants, serve as a clearinghouse of election-administration research, and maintain the national mail voter registration form established by the [[National Voter Registration Act]]. The EAC is governed by four commissioners — two from each major party — nominated by the president, confirmed by the Senate, and serving staggered four-year terms. A quorum of three is required to act. This bipartisan design was intentional: election administration was meant to sit above partisan warfare. For the KB, the EAC is a case study in how the Trump administration has systematically dismantled bipartisan institutional safeguards. The agency's destruction follows the same pattern visible across independent commissions: strip the body of members, deny it a quorum, render it unable to function, then either leave it hollow or claim its powers for the executive. The EAC dismantling connects directly to [[Unitary Executive Theory]] (the president controls all executive functions), the broader assault on the [[Administrative State]], and the specific project of using [[Voter Suppression]] mechanisms dressed up as "election integrity." ## Functions The EAC operates across four main areas. First, it runs the **Testing and Certification Program** for voting systems — the federal process by which voting machines and software are evaluated against the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG) before states deploy them. Second, it **administers HAVA grants** — billions of dollars in federal funding to help states modernize election equipment, improve accessibility, and strengthen election security. Third, it maintains the **National Voter Registration Form**, the standardized federal form that the [[National Voter Registration Act]] requires all states to accept. Fourth, it conducts **research and clearinghouse activities**: the Election Administration and Voting Survey (EAVS), best-practice guides, and election-security resources developed in partnership with [[CISA]]. The EAC also houses the **Technical Guidelines Development Committee (TGDC)** and the **Standards Board** and **Board of Advisors**, which draw on state and local election officials to inform federal guidance. ## Budget and scale The EAC has always been small — roughly $17–20 million in annual appropriations and fewer than 50 staff — but its influence is outsized because of its certification authority and its control of the national voter registration form. Through HAVA grants, the EAC has distributed over $4 billion to states since 2003 to improve election infrastructure. ## The 2025–2026 dismantling The destruction of the EAC began with [[Executive Order - Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections]], signed March 25, 2025, which directed the EAC to require documentary [[Proof of Citizenship Requirement]] on the national voter registration form within 30 days. The order was part of the broader "election integrity" agenda championed by [[Stephen Miller]] and [[America First Legal]], which had petitioned the EAC in July 2025 to amend the form — a petition that drew over 350,000 public comments and support from 14 Republican state attorneys general led by [[Ken Paxton]]. Courts blocked key provisions of the executive order. The D.C. District Court issued a partial preliminary injunction in *LULAC v. Executive Office of the President* in April 2025, and the Massachusetts District Court blocked additional provisions in *California v. Trump* in June 2025. The EAC itself — still staffed by commissioners who took their statutory obligations seriously — did not comply with the 30-day directive. On **July 9, 2026**, [[Donald Trump]] fired all three remaining commissioners by email: Democrats Thomas Hicks and [[Benjamin Hovland]], with Republican Christy McCormick allowed to resign. The fourth seat had been vacant. The firings left the EAC without a quorum — unable to certify voting systems, unable to issue guidance, unable to act on the registration-form changes the administration wanted, and unable to distribute election-security grants ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. The timing was precise. With no commissioners, the EAC cannot formally alter the national voter registration form — but neither can it resist executive-branch attempts to assert that power unilaterally. The agency sits in a legal gray zone: hollowed out but potentially useful as a shell through which the administration could claim authority over federal election forms if courts permit it. ## The pattern The EAC dismantling fits the broader Trump-era pattern of neutralizing independent commissions and inspectors general: fire the members, deny quorum, claim the agency's powers for the White House. The same logic drove the gutting of [[CISA]]'s election-security functions, the firing of inspectors general across agencies, and the reimposition of [[Schedule F]] to convert career civil servants into at-will employees. The constitutional theory underwriting all of it is [[Unitary Executive Theory]] — the claim that the president has absolute authority over every function of the executive branch, and that independent-agency insulation violates Article II. The legal vehicle is [[Trump v. Slaughter]], the June 2026 Supreme Court ruling that overruled [[Humphrey's Executor v. United States]] and held that the President may remove independent-agency commissioners at will. The White House cited *Slaughter* to justify the EAC firings — though critics like Harry Litman argue that the removal power recognized in *Slaughter* does not extend to disabling an agency by denying it a quorum. The [[League of Women Voters]] called the EAC purge "a dangerous escalation," framing it as part of a coordinated pattern alongside the DOJ's July 7 voter-citizenship letters and the [[SAVE Act]] push. ## Commissioners (as of July 9, 2026 firing) | Commissioner | Party | Appointed by | Confirmed | Removed | |---|---|---|---|---| | Thomas Hicks (Chair) | D | [[Barack Obama]] | 2014 | Fired July 9, 2026 | | [[Benjamin Hovland]] | D | [[Donald Trump]] (1st term) | Jan 2, 2019 | Fired July 9, 2026 | | Christy McCormick | R | [[Barack Obama]] | 2014 | Resigned July 9, 2026 | | (Vacant) | R | — | — | — | ## See Also - [[How a Voting System Is Certified and Decertified]] — the agency's certification program mapped end to end, including which of its functions survive the absence of commissioners and which are frozen by the three-member requirement at 52 U.S.C. § 20928 - [[Voluntary Voting System Guidelines]] · [[Technical Guidelines Development Committee]] · [[Pro V&V]] · [[SLI Compliance]] - [[Help America Vote Act]] - [[National Voter Registration Act]] - [[SAVE Act]] - [[Proof of Citizenship Requirement]] - [[Executive Order - Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections]] - [[Voter Suppression]] - [[CISA]] - [[Federal Election Commission]] - [[Trump v. Slaughter]] - [[League of Women Voters]]