Democratic Association of Secretaries of State Slams Trump for Reckless and Irresponsible Dismissal of Election Assistance Commissioners
WASHINGTON, DC – The Democratic Association of Secretaries of State (DASS) released the following statement after media reports that Donald Trump’s has fired the commissioners of the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), an independent, bipartisan commission whose mission is to help election officials improve the administration of elections and help Americans participate in the voting process.
From Cisco Aguilar, Nevada Secretary of State and Chair, Democratic Association of Secretaries of State: “President Trump’s decision to remove sitting Election Assistance Commissioners less than six months before the election is incredibly irresponsible. The EAC plays a critical role in supporting state and local election officials, and it will again fall on Secretaries of State and other election administrators to fill the gap. From cutting funding for cybersecurity to launching baseless investigations, this pattern of behavior from the Trump administration makes it harder for our election officials to do their work and does nothing to make elections more secure.”
Background:
February 2025: Trump administration ordered CISA to cut $10 million in annual funding to two cybersecurity initiatives helping state and local officials: the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center. “The Trump administration has cut millions of dollars in federal funding from two cybersecurity initiatives, including one dedicated to helping state and local election officials. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, known as CISA, has ended about $10 million in annual funding to the nonprofit Center for Internet Security, a CISA spokesperson said in an email Monday. It’s the latest move by Trump administration officials to rein in the federal government’s role in election security, which has prompted concerns about an erosion of guardrails to prevent foreign meddling in U.S. elections. […] The two cybersecurity initiatives facing cuts are the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center, which included state and local election officials along with representatives of voting system manufacturers, and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center, which has benefited state, local and tribal government offices. Both have been organized within a nonprofit, the Center for Internet Security.” [Associated Press, 3/10/25]
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