Trump Officials Sought Ways to Sidestep Election Agency Before Firings
Officials weighed emergency powers to change voting systems as the bipartisan agency lost its quorum after Trump dismissed two Democratic commissioners.
- On Thursday, President Donald Trump dismissed the two Democratic members of the Election Assistance Commission , while its sole remaining Republican commissioner resigned, after White House officials explored bypassing the agency using emergency powers.
- The administration clashed with the EAC over its refusal to mandate proof-of-citizenship on voter forms, delays in updating voting machine guidelines, and the agency's failure to address widely debunked claims of fraud during the 2020 election.
- Reuters reported that White House officials last year reviewed a proposal from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to declare a national emergency and establish a federal task force to manage voting systems without involving the EAC.
- Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer described the firings as a "brazen attempt to seize control of our elections before a single vote is cast in the midterms," while the agency now lacks a quorum to approve new business.
- The White House said on Friday the administration had been working to "safeguard elections from fraud and abuse" ahead of November's midterm elections, despite the US Constitution granting states primary authority over election administration.
17 Articles
17 Articles
US President Donald Trump dismissed the last two democrat members of a federal electoral supervisory agency, causing a heated controversy as the mid-term elections approached
The dismissal decided by the Republican President comes at a time when it increases the pressure on the parliamentarians of his camp to adopt the "SAVE America Act". This bill -- in the impasse in Congress -- aims to impose restrictions on the voting arrangements in advance of the November mid-term elections, in which Republicans could lose their majority in the House of Representatives or even in the Senate.
Trump weighed national emergency to bypass election agency before firing leaders: report
The Trump administration plotted ways to bypass an election agency before firing its leaders, according to reporting by Reuters. According to four anonymous sources who spoke to Reuters, the White House "spent months" mulling ways around Election Assistance Commission guidelines for state voting machines. Earlier this week, Trump fired two Democratic members of the commission and allowed its lone Republican commissioner to resign just months bef…
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