The White House on Thursday fired the leadership of the federal agency that provides funding and security guidance to election officials, according to sources familiar with the matter and an email reviewed by CNN.
Election Security Concerns
The Election Assistance Commission (EAC) is one of the few remaining federal entities tasked with providing election security support to states. Created by Congress in 2002, the agency is meant to be bipartisan and certifies voting equipment, having administered hundreds of millions of dollars in federal support for elections.
Some election officials feel the agency has fallen short in standing up for election officials who have faced violent threats due to conspiracy theories pushed by the president. The recent Supreme Court decision bolstering a president’s power to fire leaders of independent agencies had many in the election community fearing for the future of the EAC.
The commission was also a target of the first executive order Trump signed seeking to overhaul elections in 2025, directing the EAC to add a proof of citizenship requirement to federal forms for voter registration and ordering the commission to pressure states to adopt Election Day mail ballot deadlines.
The executive order was largely blocked in court, with multiple judges concluding Trump did not have the unilateral authority to order the commission to change voter registration requirements.
Original reporting: El Paso News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
