The White House has fired all three sitting members of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission on Thursday, upending the bipartisan group just months before the midterm elections.
The two Democratic commissioners, Thomas Hicks and Benjamin W. Hovland, were fired by email, two people familiar with the situation said, per NBC News.
The Republican commissioner, Christy McCormick, reportedly also received a call and was asked to resign. Normally, there are two Republicans and two Democrats, but Republican Don Palmer resigned earlier this year.
“They will be replaced,” a White House official confirmed to the outlet.
Presidential appointments to the agency have to be confirmed by the Senate.
According to one person familiar with the dismissals, the White House sent an email to the Democratic commissioners to alert them of their termination.
“On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I’m writing to inform you that your position as Commissioner of the Election Assistance Commission is terminated effective immediately. Thank you for your service,” the email said.
The terminations come just days after the Supreme Court ruled in Trump v. Slaughter in the president’s favor. Last year, Trump removed Rebecca Slaughter as a commissioner for the Federal Trade Commission, saying her service was inconsistent with the administration.
The ruling overturned a 1935 precedent that blocked the president from removing independent agency heads and essentially expanded the president’s power to shape independent agencies to fit their political aspirations.
The Election Assistance Commission was created by Congress under the Help America Vote Act and was intended to be an independent and bipartisan group.
The removals came in the immediate aftermath of the Slaughter ruling and appear to lean on the president’s expanded power, but it has not been determined if the commission is subject to the same framework at the FTC in Slaughter’s case.
The commission helps state and local officials run their elections by certifying election equipment and working with other groups to ensure elections run efficiently.
Hovland, one of the Democrats that was fired, told NBC that they worked to share best practices and said the change at the federal level will “have a negative impact” on state and local election administrators.
Arizona’s Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, said it was an “irresponsible and dangerous” decision that is “dead set on causing chaos” for election officials nationally.
With just months in the lead-up to the midterm general elections and primary races happening until about mid-September, Hovland told the outlet that he hopes people would consider volunteering to serve as poll workers.
“So much of what the agency was created to do was help election officials, but there’s a lot that American do along those lines too,” he said.
While the administration said the officials would be replaced, it’s unclear who the replacements would be and when they would be announced and go before the Senate for confirmation.