Democracy Defenders Fund (DDF) filed two formal complaints with federal oversight authorities, warning that recent actions by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) and one of its commissioners threaten the agency’s statutory role as a nonpartisan guardian of election integrity and risk undermining public confidence in the federal election system.

The complaints—filed with the EAC Office of Inspector General (OIG) and the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC)—raise serious concerns that the EAC is being drawn into partisan activity, in direct conflict with its mandate to operate independently and without political influence.

One complaint asks the Office of Special Counsel to investigate whether EAC Commissioner Christy McCormick violated the Hatch Act by making overtly partisan political statements while acting in her official capacity. The second urges the EAC’s Inspector General to examine whether the commission’s newly announced “End-of-Life” (EoL) review of federally certified voting systems unlawfully departs from the bipartisan framework Congress established under the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA).

“The contents of these complaints must be understood together,” said Virginia Canter, chief counsel and director of ethics and anticorruption at Democracy Defenders Fund. “The EAC is supposed to be an independent agency. Its credibility is diminished when its leadership publicly engages in partisan advocacy or advances policy changes untethered from law and evidence.”

Complaint to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel

In its filing with the Office of Special Counsel, DDF requests an investigation into statements McCormick made in late October at an event hosted by the America First Policy Institute, where she was introduced and participated in her official capacity as an EAC commissioner. During the event, McCormick repeatedly disparaged the Democratic Party and a then–New York City mayoral candidate, promoted false narratives about voter fraud and non-citizen voting, and framed election policy disagreements as a partisan struggle between “us” and “them.”

The complaint explains that such remarks are impermissible when made in an official government capacity because they appear to be intended to influence an election. The Hatch Act strictly prohibits federal officials from using their official authority or influence to affect the success or failure of a political party or candidate.

“This is what democratic backsliding looks like in practice,” said Jonathan Barry Blocker, senior policy counsel at Democracy Defenders Fund. “It begins with normalizing partisan behavior by officials who are supposed to be neutral, and it ends with the public losing faith that elections are administered fairly.”

Complaint to the EAC Office of Inspector General

In a separate filing with the Office of Inspector General, DDF calls for an investigation into the commission’s recently announced “End-of-Life” review of federally certified voting systems. The EAC described the initiative as a reassessment of systems that are no longer supported or active. DDF argues that the review represents an unprecedented and unlawful departure from federal law and the EAC’s own Testing and Certification Program Manual.

Under HAVA, voting systems may be decertified only through a rigorous, system-specific process that requires evidence of noncompliance, a formal investigation, public reporting, notice to manufacturers, and an opportunity to cure, the complaint states. By treating product age or manufacturer support status as grounds for questioning certification, DDF warns that the EoL initiative appears to bypass these mandatory safeguards and impose new criteria not authorized by law.

The DDF complaint further warns that abrupt or sweeping changes to certification status would disproportionately harm under-resourced communities, increase administrative confusion, and risk recreating the very inequities federal election law is intended to prevent.

“The commissioner’s partisan comments and the EAC’s apparent effort to sidestep established rules for decertifying voting systems are not isolated incidents,” said Diamond Brown, senior policy counsel at Democracy Defenders Fund. “These actions reflect a broader strategy of restricting access to the ballot through bureaucratic and technical pretexts, weakening the safeguards that protect our democracy.”

Read the complaint to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel
Read the complaint to the EAC Office of the Inspector General

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Democracy Defenders Fund brings together a nonpartisan team to work with national, state, and local allies across the country to defend in real-time the foundations of our democracy.