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Trump team scrutinized election agency before firings 21%
By Bo Erickson32% Erin Banco Reuters33%
7/19/2026, 2:30:00 PM
Topics: US Politics, Elections
BS Summary: This article contains 17 faulty reasoning types, including Post Hoc (False Cause), Slippery Slope, and Representativeness Heuristic, with Confirmation Bias as the most egregious example at 9% saturation with 58 hits. Analysis detected 443 faulty-reasoning hits from 641 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 35.2% and a BS Rank of 21% (17,330 of 21,887 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 79.20% of the article peer group.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump's administration spent more than a year scrutinizing the federal agency that oversees U.S. voting systems, questioning its handling of the 2020 presidential election and vetting potential new leaders before he fired its commissioners this month, according to documents reviewed by Reuters and two people familiar with the discussions.
The previously unreported effort sheds light on the Republican president's push to exert greater influence over federal elections after years of disputing his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
The Election Assistance Commission, a little-known bipartisan agency that helps test and certify voting systems, could play a central role as the administration presses for voting and election-administration changes ahead of November's midterm elections.
Republicans say the measures would bolster election security, but Democrats argue they are aimed at restricting voter access.
"If you look at voting today, it's in such bad shape in so many states, and we are committing to fix it.
And we're also committing to be working with those states and local jurisdictions to help them fix and patch known technical vulnerabilities before the midterm elections," Trump said in his speech.
"We want those elections to be honest."
Trump and the White House did not say what role, if any, they envision for the commission in that effort.
Trump spent years contesting his 2020 loss despite courts, recounts and election reviews that found no evidence of widespread fraud.
U.S. elections are the purview of the states.
The federal election agency develops voluntary guidelines for voting technology used by states and oversees the testing and certification of voting systems.
It also has authority to decertify voting systems, though it has never done so in its 24-year history.
Before ousting the commission's leadership, administration officials spent months looking for ways to bypass the agency as they pushed to accelerate initiatives that included changes to voting machine guidance and proof-of-citizenship requirements, Reuters previously reported.
The White House did not respond when asked about the documents reviewed by Reuters or its plans to replace the commissioners.
Trump nominees to the commission would need to be confirmed by the Senate.
According to correspondence reviewed by Reuters, the election agency's commission requested a briefing in May 2025 from then-Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard about her public allegations that voting systems were vulnerable to manipulation.
“The EAC stands ready to support ODNI and respectfully requests a classified or unclassified briefing on any identified vulnerabilities," the letter said.
McNamara took issue with the commission’s assertion that the 2020 election was "the most secure in American history" and its subsequent update to voting system guidelines in early 2021.
He questioned the “rapid shift in policy” and asked why the upgrades were not made before the election.
Election experts said new voting system guidelines often take years to implement due to costs and logistics.
The commission's work on the updated guidance started in 2015 and underwent multiple rounds of debate and public feedback, according to commission records.
As administration officials examined the commission's work, the White House also started vetting potential nominees for election commissioner posts.
Patrice Johnson, the chair of the Michigan Fair Elections Institute that supports Trump's election agenda, told Reuters she sent her resume to the White House last year.
Cleta Mitchell, an attorney who worked with Trump's team to overturn his 2020 loss with claims that the election was rigged, told Reuters she suggested to the White House that Johnson should be a future commissioner.
The White House also considered installing another lawyer who worked to overturn the 2020 election, Kurt Olsen, according to a person familiar with the discussions.
Olsen instead joined the U.S.
Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida in June.
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