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President Donald Trump has forced out the three remaining members of the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), dismantling the independent board that helps states and local officials carry out elections just four months before the pivotal midterms.

The President on Thursday fired the two Democratic members of the commission, Chairman Thomas Hicks and former Chairman Benjamin Hovland, the latter of whom was nominated by Trump himself during his first term. Republican Commissioner Christy McCormick also resigned, a White House official confirms to TIME.

This leaves all four seats on the EAC vacant ahead of the midterms. Donald Palmer, the other Republican commissioner, resigned in April. 

The White House official tells TIME that Trump “reserves the right to remove individuals that may not be totally aligned with the important task of securing America’s elections and ensuring every legal vote is counted.” 

Read More: Trump Claims Mail-In Voting Is ‘Corrupt.’ But Research Indicates Fraud Is Very, Very Rare

They add that the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Trump v. Slaughter “gives the President precedence to do so.” That ruling, issued by the Court last month, expanded the President’s power to fire the leaders of independent agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission at will.

“The Administration from the start has been working across all agencies and local partners to safeguard elections from fraud and abuse, and investing in a strong infrastructure to sustain that mission especially in the midterm elections,” the official adds. 

Trump has long touted false claims that U.S. elections are mired with widespread fraud and abuse, and has drawn on that baseless narrative to aggressively push for restricting practices such as mail-in voting and imposing stricter identification requirements for voters. 

It is not yet clear whether Trump will appoint new commissioners to the board, or what will happen with the EAC if all four seats remain vacant.

What is the Election Assistance Commission?

The EAC is a bipartisan, independent agency that assists in administering elections.

Created under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) in 2002, it establishes voting guidelines, certifies voting systems, maintains the national voter registration form, distributes federal elections grants, and functions as a clearinghouse of information on best practices for elections. 

Of the EAC’s four total commissioner seats, only two may be filled by commissioners belonging to the same political party. The President nominates EAC commissioners, and they must be confirmed by a simple majority vote in the Senate. 

Under the EAC’s governing rules, the vote of at least three of the commissioners is required for it to approve any official actions.

Like other independent agencies, the EAC is designed to operate outside the direct control of the President or his Cabinet secretaries and maintain a degree of autonomy from the executive branch.

Trump’s ousters draw backlash 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York condemned Trump’s move to force out the EAC’s remaining commissioners late on Thursday, calling it “a brazen attempt to seize control of our elections before a single vote is cast.” Schumer vowed that “Senate Democrats will fight this power grab at every turn.”

Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia said that Trump’s move “should concern every American, regardless of party, because the EAC was established by Congress as an independent, bipartisan body to help states administer secure and credible elections.”

“Removing every remaining commissioner just months before the 2026 midterm elections is an extraordinary step that demands an immediate explanation from the administration and raises profound concerns about political interference in the institutions that support our elections,” Warner wrote on his X account on Thursday. 

Sen. Alex Padilla of California and Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, the ranking members of two congressional committees that oversee election policies, released a joint statement in the wake of the ousters, accusing Trump of “trying to dismantle yet another independent guardrail of our democracy designed to keep elections fair and secure” and calling the decision “a blatant part of his plan to politicize our elections and enable more unlawful and dangerous election interference.”

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, another Democrat, released a statement in which he described the move as “irresponsible and dangerous,” accusing the Administration of being “dead set on causing chaos for our election officials across this country.”

Trump’s actions also met with outcry from voting and public policy organizations. 

The League of Women Voters issued a statement from its CEO, Celina Stewart, calling the commissioners’ removals “a direct attack on the independence of our nation's election infrastructure.” 

“This extraordinary action strips the EAC of its bipartisan leadership at a moment when election officials need support, stability, and protection from political pressure,” the statement continued.

Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Center for Justice, called the terminations “deeply concerning in light of President Trump’s relentless efforts to try to interfere in elections,” noting that they “leave the agency without leadership and unable to carry out its major responsibilities.”

Warning: This post contains spoilers for Evil Dead Burn, now in theaters.

If you're not a fan of seeing people get boiled alive, impaled with the metal poles of a car headrest, or stabbed by every sharp kitchen utensil that exists, then Evil Dead Burn probably isn't for you. But if you have kept up with the trajectory of horror legend Sam Raimi's long-running demonic possession franchise, these types of brutally imaginative acts of violence are simply par for the course.

Directed and co-written by French filmmaker Sébastien Vanicek (Infested), Burn marks the third entry in the series to abandon the signature slapstick humor of Raimi's original trilogy (including The Evil Dead, Evil Dead II, and Army of Darkness) in favor of gleefully sadistic body horror. And this time, we finally get confirmation that, rather than serving as standalone sequels, the modern era of these films—which began with Fede Álvarez's 2013 soft reboot Evil Dead and continued with Lee Cronin's 2023 update Evil Dead Rise—all take place within the same universe.

While Burn's central story can be understood without any prior Evil Dead knowledge, fans of the franchise will likely quickly pick up on the connective tissue that ties the newer movies together—along with a few nods to Raimi's older lore.

How Evil Dead Burn connects to the previous movies

Building on Rise's cold open, which saw the Deadites wreak havoc on a trio of unsuspecting lake goers, Burn begins with a possessed Jessica (Greta Van Den Brink, who previously served as the stunt double of Anna-Maree Thomas' Jessica in Rise) reemerging from the aforementioned lake to deliver a torturous end to two buddies attempting to enjoy a day of fishing.

After washing her hands of that mess, Jessica heads to a nearby road to await her next victim: Will Price (George Pullar), the abusive husband of final-girl-in-the-making Alice (Souheila Yacoub). The majority of Burn revolves around the Price family's post-funeral gathering at Will's late grandfather Benjamin's dilapidated cabin in the woods, where Will's father Edgar (Erroll Shand), mother Susan (Tandi Wright), grandmother Polly (Maude Davey), brother Joseph (Hunter Doohan), soon-to-be-sister-in-law Thya (Luciane Buchanan), and family dog Max (animal lovers beware!) all eventually fall under the Deadites' control, leaving Alice to scratch, claw, and weed-whack her way out of certain doom.

Along the way, we learn why the Deadites have chosen to prey upon this particular family without ever being summoned by a reading from one of the three volumes of the Necronomicon. It turns out Joseph was meddling in historian Benjamin's extensive research into the Book of the Dead and uncovered the Kandarian Dagger, an ancient blade created by the secret cult known as the Circle of Wise Men that is capable of killing Deadites, from its hiding spot in the cabin's wall. This instantly alerts nearby Deadite Jessica to the dagger's presence, prompting her to turn her attention to eliminating the Price family and destroying it.

Benjamin's journals reveal he was a member of the Circle of Wise Men and an associate of Professor Raymond Knowby, the archaeologist who originally unearthed the Necronomicon at the ruins of Castle Kandar and kickstarted the events of the 1981 film. They also contain a newspaper clipping referencing the cabin fire from 2013's Evil Dead.

What's next for the Evil Dead franchise?

The forthcoming Evil Dead Wrath, which is slated to hit theaters on April 7, 2028, is a prequel film from Francis Galluppi that will be set in 1972, nine years before the events of the first Evil Dead.

However, Evil Dead Burn's two post-credits scenes hint that the series plans to expand its present-day storyline even more.

Not only do we see Deadite Grandma Polly infect a young woman who pulls her car over to try to help when she spots a legless Polly attempting to drag herself down the road, but the Deadite version of scary mommy Ellie from Rise also makes a surprise return to kill the daughter of the owner of the crematorium where Will's funeral took place. While it’s unclear how Ellie has managed to once again rise from the undead after her body was put through a wood chipper, the suggestion that previously obliterated Deadites can now reappear opens the franchise up to some exciting new possibilities.

For now, our advice for avoiding any and all Deadite run-ins remains the same as ever: Don't read from the book!