Thomas Hicks and Christy McCormick were appointed to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission by Barack Obama. That was over a decade ago. They were still there last week, drawing federal salaries and overseeing the agency that helps run America's elections, right up until they received an email on Thursday informing them their positions were "terminated, effective immediately."
They weren't the only ones. All four commissioners are gone.
The White House sent identical termination notices to every sitting member of the EAC, including Benjamin Hovland, whom Trump himself had appointed during his first term. The letter was direct: "On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as Commissioner of the Election Assistance Commission is terminated, effective immediately." No severance package. No transition period. No thanks for your service.
The EAC describes itself as "an independent, bipartisan commission whose mission is to help election officials improve the administration of elections." It was established under the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 and has operated for decades as one of those permanent Washington fixtures that nobody elected and nobody can seem to remove. The commission had been running with a full roster until April 2026, when the fourth Trump appointee departed, leaving only the holdovers and Hovland.
A White House official told American Wire News 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." That's bureaucratic language, but the meaning is clear: the people overseeing election infrastructure need to actually care about election integrity, and the administration wasn't convinced these commissioners did.
The legal foundation for the move came from a recent Supreme Court ruling that granted the president expanded authority to fire members of independent agencies. Trump called it "the Greatest Increase in Presidential Power in the last 100 years" on Truth Social. Whether you agree with that characterization or not, the practical effect is undeniable — agencies that once operated as untouchable fiefdoms now answer to the elected executive.
Critics will frame this as Trump dismantling election safeguards ahead of the 2026 midterms. That argument requires you to believe that two Obama-era appointees — placed on the commission when their boss was actively opposing voter ID laws and fighting states that wanted to clean their voter rolls — were neutral arbiters of election administration. The EAC's mandate is procedural, but personnel is policy, and the personnel running America's election oversight were installed by an administration with a very specific philosophy about how elections should work.
The commission now sits at zero members with midterm elections approaching. New appointments will require Senate confirmation, which means this becomes a fight about who gets to shape election infrastructure going forward.
Four commissioners walked in on Thursday morning with jobs. By the time they checked their email, they didn't. The EAC's office is empty, the midterms are coming, and for the first time in thirty years, the people who fill those seats will be chosen with the whole country paying attention.
