Trump Purges Election Officials in Midterm Power Grab

President Donald Trump has fired the last three members of the Election Assistance Commission just months before the midterm elections.

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The Commission is an independent government agency set up under President George W. Bush to help officials across the country administer elections.

“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. Thank you for your service,” the email, which has been seen by Reuters, said.

The terminations were made possible by a Supreme Court decision late last month which upheld the president’s firing of a Democratic Federal Trade Commission member and expanded his powers over regulatory agencies.

The White House confirmed the firings to Reuters, citing the Supreme Court decision as precedent and saying in a statement, “The 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’s elections and ensuring ​every legal vote is counted.”

The White House official also said that the government 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.”

The Election Assistance Commission is an independent, bipartisan commission that works to “help election officials improve the administration of elections and help Americans participate in the voting process,” according to its website. It also manages the national mail voter registration form, which Trump sought to change last year to require proof of citizenship, a move blocked by a federal judge. Republicans are now seeking to push the president’s SAVE America Act through Congress, which would require voters to show proof of citizenship before they can cast their votes.

Commissioner Benjamin W. Hovland was sworn in in February 2019 after being nominated by Trump during his first term. Commissioners Thomas Hicks and Christy McCormick were sworn in in January 2015 after being nominated by then-President Barack Obama. Donald Palmer, another Trump appointee, left in April.

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The departures come only a few months before November’s crucial midterm elections, which have both sides of the aisle scrambling as Democrats work to flip Republican districts and Republicans try to maintain control of Congress.

The Trump administration has sought to intervene in the electoral process ahead of the elections by supporting controversial redistricting pushes in red states, designed to increase the number of GOP-majority districts, prompting Democrats in blue states to respond with redrawn maps of their own.

The president has also advocated for a crackdown on mail-in voting, despite both his wife Melania and son Barron making use of it to vote in a recent Florida election.

Trump, 80, has also doggedly pursued the same debunked claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him that prompted his supporters to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

His persistence has resulted in the FBI raiding election facilities in order to seize boxes of ballots and computers related to the election in an attempt to find proof of voter fraud. No such proof has yet to be produced.

It is unclear what the Commission’s future will look like, particularly since the commissioner roles must be evenly split between Republicans and Democrats and confirmed by the Senate.

Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia said in a Thursday social media post that the firings should concern all Americans, regardless of their political affiliation.