All Election Assistance Commissioners Fired or Resigned

Yesterday, President Trump removed two Democratic commissioners from the Election Assistance Commission (EAC). At the same time, one of the Republican commissioners resigned from the EAC. The fourth member of the commission, a Republican, had already resigned earlier this year. The result of these changes means that there are currently no commissioners on the Election Assistance Commission. The EAC was established by the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) in 2002. This bipartisan, independent commission is charged with adopting voting system guidelines, providing information regarding election administration, certifying voting systems, and auditing HAVA funds. As part of these duties, the EAC promulgates clearinghouse resources regarding accessible voting, including how to calculate how many accessible voting machines should be at a given polling place, best practices for accessible communications around elections, and checklists that election officials can use to evaluate the accessibility of the polling places that they run. It is unclear how this move will affect the midterm elections, if at all. ACB will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates as they occur.