· Ernie Braganza · Blog article · 14 min read
Nobody Left to Call Foul
American elections have always had referees, career officials who make sure nobody puts a thumb on the scale. Many of those officials are gone now, and Congress is moving bills that would make it harder to register and vote.
Last updated: July 15, 2026
American elections have always had referees: career officials including the FBI and the Justice Department. Their job is to make sure nobody put their thumb on the scale. In 2020, when Trump pushed those officials to help him overturn the election, most of them refused. The system held.
But those referees are gone now. A ProPublica investigation found that at least 75 of them have been fired, forced out, or reassigned since Trump returned to office. In their place are roughly two dozen political appointees, ten of whom actively worked to reverse the 2020 election results.23 The administration isn’t just changing personnel. It’s replacing the people who said no with people who have already complied.
Making It Harder to Vote
A bill moving through Congress would make it significantly harder to register to vote.
The SAVE Act, now folded into a broader package called the SAVE America Act, would require you to show a passport or birth certificate to register for federal elections and show ID to cast a ballot.8 That sounds reasonable until you consider that millions of eligible Americans don’t have those documents and face real hurdles getting them, including women who changed their name at marriage, people in rural areas, and low-income voters.9 The bill hardly stands a chance of catching a single fraudulent voter, since noncitizen voting is already vanishingly rare, but it would set up extra bureaucratic barriers and expenses that will discourage a lot of citizens who have the right to vote.9, 10 Together with the administration’s other moves, it points in one direction: fewer voters, more federal control over who gets to participate.
The SAVE America Act has passed the House three times but keeps stalling in the Senate, where it doesn’t have the sixty votes to clear a filibuster.25 Trump has said the bill would “guarantee” the midterms for Republicans, and in June he showed exactly how far he’ll go to get it. Congress had just passed a bipartisan housing bill, the most significant housing legislation in three decades, with a signing ceremony already set up on Capitol Hill. Trump canceled it that morning, posting that the signing was “hereby cancelled until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT.”25 He eventually let the housing bill become law without his signature, still in protest over the voting bill.25 Eric Kashdan, director of federal advocacy at the Campaign Legal Center, said Trump doesn’t actually need the bill to pass: if Republicans lose in November, he can point to its failure as proof the election wasn’t secure.25
Loyalty Not Law
Here’s what the dismantling actually looks like in practice.
The agency that debunked Trump’s 2020 hacking claims, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), was one of the first targets. Within weeks of Trump’s second inauguration, CISA’s election security staff were put on leave. Their work to prevent hacking was frozen. Eventually they were all fired or transferred. The administration called their election work “electioneering.”23
The FBI’s public corruption team, which monitored criminal activity on Election Day, was disbanded. So was the Foreign Influence Task Force that tracked foreign interference in our elections.23
The Justice Department unit that enforces voting rights, particularly for communities of color, lost nearly all of its 30 career lawyers. Their replacements include attorneys who tried to overturn the 2020 vote.23
The DOJ’s internal watchdog for political interference, the Public Integrity Section, went from 36 lawyers to two. The man who ran it until early 2025 put it plainly: without those independent reviewers, “there is a much greater risk for intentional manipulation or inadvertent interference.”23
“Team America”
After clearing out the career staff, a group of political appointees started meeting at DHS headquarters. They called themselves “Team America” as if they were heroes straight out of a comic book. Their job was to find federal levers they could use to take control of how elections are run.23
These aren’t neutral technocrats. One co-founded an AI company with someone who pushed Trump’s Michigan election-hacking claims. Another is the source of the false story that more ballots were cast in Pennsylvania than there were voters, the same claim Trump repeated on the morning of January 6th. At least 11 Trump appointees with a hand in election matters have ties to an organization run by a lawyer who helped Trump try to overturn certified 2020 election results.23
More recently, “Team America” has been working to use a powerful federal law enforcement database to hunt for noncitizen voters and bring criminal charges, going beyond tools that have already proven hopelessly flawed for this purpose.23
Troops at the Polls
Trump has called for “nationalizing” elections, a push to shift control away from state and local officials toward partisan federal power.5, 6, 7 Draft plans have circulated among his allies that would let him declare a national emergency and seize authority over ballots and voting machines.11, 12, 13
There are also serious warnings that federal agents or National Guard troops could be stationed at polling places.14, 15 You don’t have to actually arrest anyone to suppress a vote. You just have to make people afraid to show up.
It’s Not Over Until They Win
In January 2026, federal agents showed up in Fulton County, Georgia, and walked out with hundreds of boxes of 2020 ballots.1, 3, 17
ProPublica traced that raid to Kurt Olsen, Trump’s director of election security, a lawyer who had already been sanctioned by courts for making baseless election claims. Olsen flew to Atlanta, pitched the seizure to the local FBI chief, and when that agent wouldn’t play along, the agent was pushed out. His replacement conducted the raid.23
The message sent to every election official in the country was that the ballots you count today can be seized and relitigated tomorrow.
Federal Courts Have Pushed Back
Some states have refused to comply, and, despite our recent disappointment with the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Voting Rights Act, courts have been siding with the states. Arizona’s Secretary of State told the Justice Department to “pound sand” when it demanded his voter rolls. He got sued and won. A Trump-appointed federal judge threw out the case.22, 20 Six federal courts have ruled against the administration on voter data demands. Rhode Island, California, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Oregon have all prevailed.22 The DOJ also has a pending suit against Virginia for voter data.24
It’s worth noting what the administration was actually looking for. The tool it’s been using to screen voter rolls for noncitizens is a federal immigration database with a documented pattern of flagging actual citizens as ineligible. The Brennan Center found it could “incorrectly identify someone as a noncitizen,” creating the very confusion about election integrity it claims to be preventing.22, 21 There is no evidence of widespread noncitizen voting. There never was.22
The court victories matter. The officials who refused to comply showed that resistance is possible and that the law is still on the side of voters. But courts can only rule on what’s brought before them. They can’t rehire the fired election security experts, un-disband the FBI’s corruption team, or undo the fear that’s already spreading among the local election workers who make our elections actually run.
More wins have followed since. A federal judge blocked Trump’s executive order that would have forced states to hand over lists of mail-ballot voters to the Postal Service and let the Postal Service decide who gets a ballot.32 Another judge dismissed the Justice Department’s lawsuit demanding Pennsylvania’s voter rolls, complete with driver’s license and partial Social Security numbers, though the administration is appealing.32 Recently, the Justice Department sent letters to election officials in all fifty states warning that they could face criminal prosecution if they knowingly let noncitizens vote.30 Pennsylvania’s secretary of the commonwealth, Al Schmidt, wrote back this week pointing out that Pennsylvania already cancels hundreds of thousands of ineligible registrations a year and isn’t changing a thing about how it runs the 2026 election.31 Officials in other states are expected to push back the same way. But a threat like that doesn’t need to result in an actual prosecution to work. It just needs to make an election official think twice before doing their job.
Now There’s Nobody Left to Call Foul
On July 9, the last three referees standing walked off the field. Trump fired the two Democrats on the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), Thomas Hicks and Benjamin Hovland, notifying them by a two-sentence email. Hovland found out while sitting in an airport waiting on a delayed flight.27 The commission’s one remaining Republican, Christy McCormick, was pushed to resign rather than fired outright. A fourth seat had already been empty since its previous Republican occupant left for the Heritage Foundation.26 For the first time since Congress created the EAC after the disputed 2000 election, the agency has zero commissioners.
The EAC doesn’t run elections. It distributes the federal grants that pay for election security, maintains the national mail voter registration form, certifies the voting machines your county uses, and gives cash-strapped local officials somewhere to turn for best practices.26 Major decisions require at least three commissioners to vote yes. With none left, the agency can’t update voting standards, can’t revise the national registration form, and can’t act on the citizenship documentation rules courts have already partly blocked.26 Replacing the commissioners requires Senate confirmation, a process that took nine months the last time around and is unlikely to finish before November.27
The White House’s legal justification is a recent Supreme Court ruling that let Trump fire a Federal Trade Commission member, expanding presidential power to remove the heads of independent agencies.28 Whether that ruling actually reaches a body Congress deliberately built with an even partisan split, so that no single party could control it, is untested. But untested didn’t stop the administration from doing it anyway.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called it “a brazen attempt to seize control of our elections before a single vote is cast.”26 Minnesota’s Democratic secretary of state, Steve Simon, who has worked with the EAC since it was created, called the firings “another canary in the coal mine.”27 Hovland, one of the fired commissioners, put it plainly: “We weren’t perfect, and we weren’t a silver bullet, but we were someone in the federal government that was still trying to help.”27
Election administrators say the immediate damage will likely be limited. Funding already in the pipeline for November will still go out, and machine certification can continue under the standards commissioners already approved.27 That’s the good news, if you can call it that. The bad news is what it signals. Every one of the moves in this article, the fired FBI agents, the gutted watchdog units, the “Team America” planning sessions, the Fulton County ballot raid, was aimed at removing people who might say no. The EAC firings removed the last ones with a badge and a vote.
What’s Really Happening
Step back and the pattern is clear. This isn’t about election security. No evidence of widespread fraud has ever been found, not in 2020 and not since.22 What’s happening is a deliberate effort to replace neutral administrators with loyalists, make voting harder for people without resources and time to gather documents, put federal muscle behind false partisan narratives, and ensure that if results don’t go as planned, there are tools ready to challenge them. The Election Assistance Commission firings are the clearest sign yet of where this ends: not just loyalists in the referees’ seats, but no referees at all.
Democracies don’t usually collapse in one dramatic moment. They erode through a succession of small surrenders: one fired official, one intimidated poll worker, one bogus investigation, until people stop believing their vote counts. It becomes too much trouble to bother. That’s the real threat here, and it’s a familiar one. Hungary, Poland, Turkey, and Venezuela all followed some version of this path: no coup, just the gradual replacement of courts, election bodies, and prosecutors with loyalists until the referees stopped being neutral.33
The right to vote is under threat. It survives because people insist on it, because election workers show up, citizens pay attention, and communities refuse to be intimidated.18, 19 Let’s summon our courage and be brave together.
Sources
1. Brennan Center for Justice, “The Trump Administration’s Campaign to Undermine the Next Election”: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/trump-administrations-campaign-undermine-next-election
3. KTVZ, “Senator Wyden demands answers on national voter database initiative”: https://ktvz.com/news/government-politics/2026/04/03/senator-wyden-demands-answers-on-national-voter-database-initiative/
5. The New York Times, “Trump, in an Escalation, Calls for Republicans to ‘Nationalize’ Elections”: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/02/us/politics/trump-nationalize-elections.html
6. POLITICO, “Trump says Republicans should ‘nationalize’ elections”: https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/02/trump-nationalize-elections-2026-midterms-00760015
7. The Hill, “Trump faces heat over call to nationalize elections; DHS funding at risk”: https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/5728160-trump-nationalize-elections-bipartisan-opposition/
8. Brennan Center and Democracy Docket analysis of the SAVE Act and SAVE America Act: https://www.brennancenter.org/issues/voting-and-elections/, https://www.democracydocket.com
9. Brennan Center and ACLU reporting on documentary proof-of-citizenship laws: https://www.brennancenter.org/issues/voting-and-elections/, https://www.aclu.org/issues/voting-rights
10. ACLU fact sheets on documentary-proof-of-citizenship rules: https://www.aclu.org/issues/voting-rights
11. Washington Post, “Trump, seeking executive power over elections, is urged to declare …”: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/02/26/trump-elections-executive-order-activists/
12. Democracy Docket, “Read a draft of the emergency executive order for Trump to take control of elections”: https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/exclusive-read-the-draft-executive-emergency-order-for-trump-to-take-control-of-elections/
13. Truthout, “Trump Allies Circulating Draft Order to Declare National Emergency …”: https://truthout.org/articles/draft-order-to-declare-national-emergency-on-elections-circulating-trump-allies/
14. VoteBeat, “Can Trump send National Guard troops to the polls in the 2026 election?”: https://www.votebeat.org/2026/01/20/trump-national-guard-troops-polling-places-2026-election-insurrection-act/
15. Democracy Docket, “Armed troops shouldn’t be ‘anywhere near’ polling sites”: https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/air-force-general-armed-troops-shouldnt-be-anywhere-near-polling-sites/
17. NPR, “The FBI seizure of Georgia ballots relies on debunked claims”: https://www.npr.org/2026/02/10/nx-s1-5710649/fulton-county-2020-election-affidavit-fbi
CBS News, “Fulton County expert witness says FBI affidavit used to seize ballots had …”: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fulton-county-2020-election-materials-court-hearing-fbi/
18. Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation: https://www.reaganfoundation.org/ronald-reagan/quotes/voting-is-a-precious-right-that-for-two-centuries
19. League of Women Voters voting rights quote collection: https://www.lwv.org/blog/powerful-quotes-voting-rights-march-washington
20. Washington Times, “Federal judge dismisses DOJ lawsuit against Arizona seeking voter data” (April 28, 2026): https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/apr/28/federal-judge-dismisses-doj-lawsuit-arizona-seeking-voter-data/; Fox News, “Trump-appointed federal judge tosses DOJ lawsuit seeking Arizona voter data” (April 29, 2026): https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-appointed-federal-judge-tosses-doj-lawsuit-seeking-arizona-voter-data
21. Brennan Center for Justice, analysis of SAVE database reliability: https://www.brennancenter.org/issues/voting-and-elections/
22. The Guardian, “Judge thwarts Trump administration’s attempt to access Arizona voter rolls” (April 28, 2026): https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/28/arizona-voter-rolls-trump-administration
23. ProPublica, “8 Things You Should Know About Trump’s Effort to ‘Take Over’ the Midterm Elections” (May 1, 2026): https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-midterm-elections-takeover-takeaways; full investigation: https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-midterm-elections-takeover
24. Department of Justice Press Release, “Justice Department Sues Virginia for Failure to Produce Voter Rolls” (January 16, 2026): https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-virginia-failure-produce-voter-rolls
25. Los Angeles Times, “Trump refuses to sign landmark housing bill, demanding Congress pass voter ID law” (June 24, 2026): https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2026-06-24/trump-refuses-to-sign-landmark-housing-bill-demanding-congress-pass-voter-id-law; “Trump will let bipartisan housing bill become law without signing in protest over GOP voter ID law” (July 10, 2026): https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2026-07-10/trump-will-let-bipartisan-housing-bill-become-law-without-signing-in-protest-over-gop-voter-id-law
26. The Guardian, “Trump accused of trying to ‘rig’ elections after firing federal commissioners” (July 10, 2026): https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/10/trump-accused-election-rig-federal-commissioners-fired
27. Votebeat, “Trump move to neutralize election administration agency creates a chilling effect, but its impact may be muted” (July 13, 2026): https://www.votebeat.org/national/2026/07/13/trump-eac-voting-oversight-neutralize-election-assistance/; “Trump fires all Election Assistance Commission members, leaving agency unable to act” (July 9, 2026): https://www.votebeat.org/national/2026/07/09/trump-fires-election-assistance-commission-members-hicks-hovland-mccormick/
28. CNBC, “Trump purges Election Assistance Commission members, months before midterms” (July 10, 2026): https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/10/trump-purges-election-assistance-commission.html
30. Votebeat, “Trump Department of Justice sends letter to all 50 states on noncitizen voters” (July 7, 2026): https://www.votebeat.org/national/2026/07/07/trump-department-justice-letter-noncitizens-voter-rolls-election-officials/
31. Votebeat, “Pennsylvania’s top election official responds to Trump administration warning of criminal prosecution” (July 15, 2026): https://www.votebeat.org/pennsylvania/2026/07/15/al-schmidt-trump-department-justice-noncitizen-voting-criminal-prosecution-midterms/
32. Votebeat, “Trump election overhaul mail voting executive order blocked” (June 25, 2026): https://www.votebeat.org/national/2026/06/25/trump-election-overhaul-mail-voting-executive-order-blocked-talwani-usps-dhs/; “Department of Justice voter roll lawsuit dismissed” (June 28, 2026): https://www.votebeat.org/pennsylvania/2026/06/28/department-of-justice-voter-roll-lawsuit-dismissed/
33. Freedom House, “Hungary: Nations in Transit 2024”: https://freedomhouse.org/country/hungary/nations-transit/2024; Freedom House, “Hostile Takeover: How Law and Justice Captured Poland’s Courts”: https://freedomhouse.org/report/analytical-brief/2018/hostile-takeover-how-law-and-justice-captured-polands-courts; Freedom House, “Turkey: Freedom in the World 2024”: https://freedomhouse.org/country/turkey/freedom-world/2024; Javier Corrales, “Venezuela’s Autocratization, 1999-2021,” free PDF via the Tobin Project: https://tobinproject.org/sites/default/files/assets/Chapter%2012%20-%20Venezuela%20-%20Corrales.pdf
