President Donald Trump has dismissed two Democratic members of the US Election Assistance Commission (EAC), Benjamin Hovland and Thomas Hicks, while the panel's sole Republican member, Christy McCormick, resigned on the same day. The move leaves the independent watchdog — created in 2002 to help administer US elections — without any sitting commissioners just four months before the midterm elections, which will decide the balance of power for the remainder of Trump's term. Critics frame this as paralysing a key voting oversight body at a politically sensitive moment.

The firings follow a late-June Supreme Court ruling, referred to as the "Slaughter decision", which granted the president broad authority to remove executive branch officials. A White House official said the president reserves the right to remove individuals who "may not be totally aligned" with securing elections and ensuring "every legal vote is counted". The four-member commission had already been operating with one vacancy after Republican Donald Palmer left earlier in the year, meaning all four seats are now empty. The article notes that Trump continues to deny his 2020 election defeat to Joe Biden.