President Donald Trump has removed the Election Assistance Commission’s remaining members. Midterm election planning is currently underway. The sudden removals follow a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision to expand executive authority over independent boards.
President Trump fired the two remaining Democratic commissioners, and a separate Republican member resigned. These vacancies leave the critical four-member leadership panel empty during a vital election cycle.
Bill Gates, Executive Director of the ASU Mechanics of Democracy Laboratory, joined “Arizona Horizon” to discuss how these removals affect the upcoming midterm elections.
The Election Assistance Commission first started in 2002 as a part of the Help America Vote Act. The bipartisan commission is composed of two Republican commissioners and two Democratic commissioners.
Gates discussed the specific responsibilities of the commissioners and their voluntary role in local elections.
“They have several roles that they serve but they kind of fall within the realm of providing federal grants to local election offices. Also certifying elections machine and certifying other sort of technical pieces within the elections process,” Gates said.
This move to remove these commission members by the President came just weeks after the Slaughter decision came down from the U.S. Supreme Court. This 6-3 decision held that the President is able to remove the heads of independent government agencies.
Gates said that the nomination and approval of new commissioners is “unlikely” at this point and that they will continue to move forward with no commissioners.
However he explained that the lack of commissioners will not affect any elections moving forward.
“Elections are run at the local level. This made news, it made headlines but it doesn’t affect the ballot that voters are going to receive or the process they’re going to deal with,” Gates said.
Looking at the recent agreement that was reached between the Maricopa Board of Supervisors and the County Recorder, Gates shared his thoughts on the agreement and its impact on voters in the county.
“I think the agreement being in place is a good step. As you know the recorder and the board of supervisors were involved in litigation since last year. This now gives clarity on some of these issues that were up in the air, and I think that’s good for voters,” Gates said.
