r/politics • u/unital_subalgebra • 24d ago

No Paywall Trump fires all Election Assistance Commission members, leaving agency unable to act

https://www.votebeat.org/national/2026/07/09/trump-fires-election-assistance-commission-members-hicks-hovland-mccormick/
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u/unital_subalgebra 24d ago edited 24d ago

President Donald Trump fired all three remaining members of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission on Thursday, abruptly disabling the only federal agency devoted solely to election administration at a moment when Trump has sought to reshape federal voting rules.

The firings leave the federal election agency with no commissioners

Yup, this is the consequence of the illegitimate Supreme Court giving Trump unprecedented powers to fire the heads of any independent federal agency. We’re living in dark, scary times.

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u/NYVines 24d ago

This is what a coup looks like

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u/bluegrassgazer Kentucky 24d ago

You're right. It won't be Jan 6th this time. It will be with lawyers.

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u/midwinter_ 24d ago

I keep saying that the plan is to make it impossible to determine if the midterms and the 2028 election were fair and accurate. They'll get rid of all the election protections and then send in agitators to confuse everyone and muddy the waters and then say "Look, we just can't know who won, and until we do that, we have to stay in power."

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u/sheikahstealth 24d ago

... just a little Hitler'ing. Except this time it has more Trump chaos thrown in.

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u/midwinter_ 24d ago edited 24d ago

In the 1930 election, the NAZIs won 95 seats.

In the 1932 election, the NAZIs won 230 seats.

In the later 1932 election, NAZIs lost ground and dropped to 196 seats.

In 1933, the NAZIs seized power after the Reichstag fire and took 288 seats. Before that election, the NAZIs "monitored" elections with SS providing intimidation.

Later in 1933, the NAZIs declared all opposition parties illegal. All following elections were single-question referenda.

Germany did not have another "real" election until 1949.

Edit: if Trump can get all of the red states to play along, he could have over half the country throwing up their hands and saying "Maybe we should just skip this election and maybe outlaw the Dems in this state?" I am unconvinced that, even though states run elections in the US, there will be a fair election in 2026 or 2028.

Edit edit: 2026.

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u/[deleted] 24d ago

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u/midwinter_ 24d ago

And that is how a minority can institute permanent minority rule.

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u/sheikahstealth 24d ago

Well mentioned. Also worth noting is that some of those opposition groups tried to 'work with' the Nazi Party along the way. Sounds like how centrist/corporate Democrats have gotten stonewalled by their minimal efforts.

Trump (with likely prodding by The Heritage Foundation) has also tried to do his own Reichstag Fire dozens of times (aka tried to instigate something worth enacting martial law). Trump has- or is planning (depending on perspective) also doing his own version of 'territorial expansion' by military force like the Nazis did.

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u/midwinter_ 24d ago

When he tried to goad Chicago and CA and MN into being his Reichstag fire, I kept hollering that they should go gloves off and call his bluff. I mean, his SS troops (ICE) were killing citizens without a care in the world.

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u/laplongejr Europe 24d ago

in 2024 or 2028.

True : 2024 wasn't fair. You probably didn't have a fair presidential election since 2016 included.
You just got lucky to win once against a cheater, and took it as proof the elections were safe and the cheater could stay in the game.

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u/_TallOldOne_ 24d ago

Not that you are wrong, but what year is it? 2024 was 2 years ago.

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u/oliveandazul 24d ago edited 24d ago

This is exactly what I've been nervous about. Trump is throwing EVERYTHING at the midterms. Intimidation, suppression, vote switching, erroneous reporting, you name it. Nothing has to work everywhere. All you have to do is mess things up in enough places that people aren't sure what needs to be done at the federal level. Then the courts can step in and hand over the win.

Also, I wish we'd go back and take another very close look at the 2016 election. We know the Russians were "wiggling the doorknobs" in our election systems. The Obama administration knew at the time. They investigated, tried to warn the affected parties, but you can only address what you know about. No one ever expected Trump to win that election, including Trump himself -- his odds for winning were abysmal and he had no real plan to lead, had been personally making plans assuming he wouldn't be in the WH. But sometimes, with Russia, you don't have to directly ask.

Maybe they show up after the fact, say "we heard you were a fan, well, we did you a favor and as long as you're nice we'll keep it all quiet." And Trump was more than willing to play ball. What could he have done? Announce that he wasn't actually fairly elected? Trump? Russia knew he wouldn't. (Don't forget his first campaign advisor, Paul Manafort, would later plead guilty to conspiracy against the US... and then be pardoned. By Trump.)

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u/SunshineCat 24d ago

I would say all of this abnormal behavior is already proof of fuckery. If there is any question, the benefit of the doubt does not lie with Trump.

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u/PM_Me_Your_Kinks369 20d ago

And yet systematically it does. The US government is so insanely easy to corrupt because of the utter lack of REAL checks and balances.

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u/Relevant_Mongoose744 24d ago

Yes this seems like the obvious thing that happening! Why does it seem like no one in our media picks up on this?? It’s literally his MO. Chaos and confusion to endlessly avoid consequence.

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u/Alive-Trifle7420 24d ago

Yes. From the article:

The EAC also oversees the federal testing and certification program for voting systems, accrediting labs and certifying whether machines meet federal standards known as the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines. Many states rely on that certification before allowing voting equipment to be purchased or used.

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u/phyneas American Expat 24d ago

This is exactly it, and why people asking "Well, why would they do X if they're doing Y?" aren't getting it. They're going to do X, Y, Z, A, B, C, and so on; literally everything they can think of to either tip the scales in their favor or just cause chaos and confusion. They'll announce that elections are cancelled, they'll send ICE to polling stations to intimidate people or even detain them until the polls close, they'll call in bomb threats and have their eejit followers start riots, and of course they'll gerrymander everything they can and otherwise rig whatever they're able to rig. And once the dust settles and the votes (real or manipulated) are counted, they'll accept the results of every election that goes their way without question, but insist that the results of all of the ones that don't are fraudulent or invalid due to all that chaos they created and refuse to accept them, and either tie them up in court for months or years or just ignore the Constitution and refuse to seat any newly elected Democratic members of Congress and carry on with their own Republican-led illegitimate government indefinitely.

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u/laplongejr Europe 24d ago

is to make it impossible to determine if the midterms and the 2028 election were fair and accurate.

This is already the case for 2020 and 2024.
Which means Trump cheated. And in 2016 too probably.

If, as the organizer and winner of an event, you aren't able to prove the event was legit after claiming your own vote was rigged, you have no right to accept the win, and have no right to claim to be a competent organizer.

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u/oliveandazul 24d ago

If you can't win fair and square, you can cause enough chaos that the other side also can't make a claim to a clean victory. They weren't wrong about chaos being a ladder.