Geoff Bennett:
Preparing for an election takes months, sometimes years. From registering voters to maintaining voting machines, state and local election officials do the work with support from the federal government.
But in the middle of this midterm election year, the bipartisan federal agency that helps coordinate those efforts is effectively unable to function. The agency lost its remaining commissioners after they were removed by President Trump last week.
Thomas Hicks served on the U.S. Election Assistance Commission for more than a decade, including as its chair, until he was fired.
And he joins us now.
Thank you for being here.
Thomas Hicks, Former Chair, U.S. Election Assistance Commission:
Thank you for having me. I’m sad that it’s under bad circumstances.
Geoff Bennett:
Yes.
Well, take us back to Thursday night. How did you learn that you were being fired?
Thomas Hicks:
Well, I had just talked to the travel people about going to the National Association of Secretaries of State conference, which is being held here — in South Dakota this week, and less than 10 minutes later, got a text or e-mail.
I got an e-mail from someone in the White House basically saying that I’m no longer a commissioner and I have been terminated by President Trump.
Geoff Bennett:
Did you have any warning that something like this might happen?
Thomas Hicks:
No, none at all. I had not spoken to anyone in the administration, felt that we were doing decent work, and still feel that we could do decent work.
Geoff Bennett:
You have spent years working with state and local election officials, Democrats and Republicans alike. What have you heard from them since your firing?
Thomas Hicks:
I have been very surprised, not surprised, but heartfelt outreach of people.
More than 400 election officials and from both sides of the aisle and independents as well have reached out to me and told me that they have enjoyed my work and working with me.
But it’s not about me. It’s about the agency. And so I want to ensure that the agency can still function well and get the things done for the American people for November to ensure that they know that they should still be able to have confidence in the process, that they should be able to cast their votes and have those votes counted accurately because of the work of the state and local election officials.
Geoff Bennett:
Can the agency function well without sitting commissioners?
Thomas Hicks:
I think it could do pretty well this — until November or so.
But after the elections in November, I wonder what sort of things can go forward with it.
Geoff Bennett:
So what does the agency do? Help us understand its function.
Thomas Hicks:
So the agency basically has a few top-line things that we do, one, the Help America Vote Act. We basically give out funds to the states to ensure that they can function well. So — and we audit those funds.
The other piece is, we serve as a clearinghouse of information, so gathering that information, and then we get that information out to the states, because it’s 8,000 jurisdictions, but there’s only one or two individuals who work in certain things.
But the main piece that we do is certify voting equipment. And our fourth piece is that we administer the national voter registration forum, which most folks know is motor voter. This year, we only got basically less than $50 million to give out to the 50 states and the five territories.
I would ask that the Trump administration reconsider that in terms of they gave more than $400 million during the COVID nineteen crisis and gave some security grants as well to help the election officials. So this money coming now might not help for this election cycle, but it’ll help moving forward.
So, if you are really critical of making sure that the elections function well, fund the elections at an appropriate rate.
Geoff Bennett:
A recent Supreme Court ruling, as you well know, expanded the president’s authority to remove the leaders of independent agencies. Do you plan to contest your firing?
Thomas Hicks:
I don’t know yet. I think that I want to weigh all options. There have been some really great outreach from folks, but I want to weigh all my options before thinking about moving forward.
Geoff Bennett:
Taken together, the firings, the effective neutralizing of this commission, the president’s persistent lies about the 2020 election that he lost, the calls to change mail-in voting and voter registration, what do you believe is the president’s broader objective here?
Thomas Hicks:
I don’t know.
But I think that it might be the anti-voter rhetoric that’s going out. But I want to assure the American people to still cast their votes and, if they have doubts about the system and other aspects, to serve as a poll worker.
I’m really saddened in that I won’t be able to participate in a function that we were going to have in NASA down in Houston, Texas, in August, where we were going to work with a group called Vet the Vote to recruit additional poll workers to serve in November. So veterans are looked at as one of the most trusted sources of civil engagement as possible.
And so to have more veterans serving as poll workers also gives that reassurance that the election is functioning well.
Geoff Bennett:
The changes now, the fact that the EAC no longer has commissioners, does this present an administrative problem? Or is this a real foundational issue heading into November and then subsequent elections?
Thomas Hicks:
I think that the commission has functioned without commissioners before, and it didn’t do great, and so to the point where members of Congress were looking to get rid of the agency.
But three commissioners came in. It was two Republicans and one, me, the Democrat, at one point. But we rebuilt the agency and rebuilt the reputation of the agency, to a point where I think that it’s a trusted source of information for election officials now. And I hope that that continues on with the staff, who I have full faith and confidence in will do the right thing of ensuring that Americans can still count on the EAC for election administration.
Geoff Bennett:
Do you have a sense of why the administration and the president would target your agency and effectively neutralize it?
Thomas Hicks:
I don’t. But it’s sad that we were the first to come out of the box of after the Slaughter decision to be looked at as being eliminated.
Geoff Bennett:
And you were just a few months away from retirement. Is that right?
Thomas Hicks:
That’s correct. I should have been able to retire in a few months. I probably would have gone through the elections process, but come January, I would have been eligible.
That doesn’t mean that I would have left. It just means that I would have been fully eligible for retirement and, since I loved my job, it was one of the greatest jobs ever, to continue on with that. But, again, it’s not about me. It’s about the American people.
Geoff Bennett:
Thomas Hicks, thanks again for being here. We appreciate it.
Thomas Hicks:
Thank you for having me.
