Dem
47
GOP
53
Last Thursday, Donald Trump took action based on the Supreme Court's ruling that members of independent commissions aren't independent at all, but serve at the president's pleasure. He fired the two Democrats on the Election Assistance Commission, Thomas Hicks and Benjamin Hovland, by e-mail. The remaining Republican, Christy McCormick, resigned afterward. The other Republican, Donald Palmer, resigned earlier this year. By law, the commission has two Democrats and two Republicans. So now the commission has no commissioners and can't function.
The Commission has no enforcement power, but helps states run elections. It also develops, tests, and certifies voting systems. Republicans have always hated the Commission because they believe the federal government has no role to play in election management—except when there is a Republican president who is trying actively to interfere with the state-run elections. In particular, Trump has a bone to pick with the EAC, because in 2025 he ordered the EAC to add a documentary proof-of-citizenship requirement to voter registration forms and the Commission didn't do it.
It is now possible that since there are no commissioners, Trump will try to bully EAC staff by ordering them to instruct states to add a proof-of-citizenship requirement to their voter registration forms. Republican secretaries of state would howl to the moon if a Democratic president gave them an order, but might say "Yes, sir" to a Republican order and get to work on it.
Trump is also peripherally involved in another state-election-management battle. In Arizona, the Republican-controlled Maricopa County Board of Supervisors is trying to wrest control from Maricopa County Recorder, Trump ally Justin Heap, who is also a Republican. They want Heap to state whether the 2020 and 2022 elections were fair, something he doesn't want to do. In 2020 it was Joe Biden's victory over Trump that is in dispute and in 2022 it was Gov. Katie Hobbs' (D-AZ) victory over Kari Lake (Q-Mars).
Last year, armed protesters held raucous rallies outside the county's tabulation center and have threatened more this year, with races for governor, attorney general, secretary of state, and three contested House seats.
The fight goes back to a 2024 agreement between the Board and then-Recorder Stephen Richer (R) that assigned some IT staff and duties away from the recorder's office. Richer had affirmed the victories by Biden (2020) and Hobbs (2022). When Heap took over from Richer, he canceled the deal, hired a law firm founded by Stephen Miller, and sued the board because it was allegedly starving the recorder's office of funds. The Maricopa County D.A., Rachel Mitchell (R), contested the hiring of Miller's firm and said it was a power grab. But in April 2026, a county judge blocked the transfer of the IT staff from the recorder to the board. An appeals court blocked the county judge, but last week the state Supreme Court ruled in favor of Heap. So, in short, that's Heap wins, Heap loses, Heap wins, Heap loses, Heap wins.
There is also a dispute over ballot scanners and more. One of the board's lawyers said Heap wants a big fight as an excuse to justify more extreme actions. Voting rights groups are very alarmed at Heap, who suggested that the court appoint Cleta Mitchell, the lawyer who helped Trump try to overturn the 2020 election, as a mediator between Heap and the board.
Another thing Heap has done is to curtail the sending of bipartisan teams to hospitals and nursing homes to help people fill out ballots. Kate Brophy McGree, the Republican chair of the board, said: "Recorder Heap, with his serial lies, has done more to harm voter confidence in our elections than I could do in two lifetimes."
This could be a warning as right-wing groups try to take over the voting machinery and install Trump allies and conspiracy theorists to run elections and count the ballots. What happened here could (and probably will) happen elsewhere as well. Thanks to reader B.P. in Salt Lake City, UT, for the heads-up. (V)