Trump 'wants to put his own stamp on elections' with little known federal agency: report

President Donald Trump wants to “put his own stamp on elections,” according to a new report from the Associated Press.

An executive order, which he signed in March, targets the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC), a little-known independent commission which was designed to “help states update their voting equipment.”

The EAC was created in 2002, as a result of Florida’s “hanging chads” ballot controversy in 2000.

The commission was given a number of mandates, including distributing federal money for new voting equipment; creating voluntary guidelines for voting systems, and establishing a federal testing and certification program for them, according to the AP.

They also oversee the national voter registration form and gather data about federal elections.

The four commissioners who lead the agency are nominated by the President. No political party can be represented by more than two commissioners. The commission itself is supposed to be non-political.

In Trump’s executive order, he directed the EAC to update the national voter registration form to add a proof of citizenship requirement.

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Trump wants to put his own stamp on elections," AP wrote. He “has long been skeptical of how elections are run, making false claims that the 2020 election was ‘rigged’ against him. Multiple reviews of that election confirmed his loss to Democrat Joe Biden.”

According to the outlet, the order also directed the commission to “take all appropriate action to cease” federal money for any state that fails to use the form that includes the proof-of-citizenship requirement.

However, if the president can actually order an independent agency to do all this will “likely be settled in court.”

EAC Chairman Donald Palmer said the agency was following the law, which governs the way any proposed change to the federal form can be made.

“That’s the process that we’ve done in the past, and that’s the process we did this time. In my mind, this is really to get information from the states,” Palmer said.

The commission’s Standards Board begins its annual meeting in North Carolina on Thursday. They are expected to hear from election officials from across the country.