The Department of Homeland Security plans to withhold billions of dollars in preparedness grant funding from states that refuse to adopt a set of new election security requirements. The conditions include voter citizenship verification, post-election audits, and expanded use of paper ballots.
FEMA, a sub-agency of DHS, is making more than $1 billion in taxpayer funding available through its Homeland Security Grant Program. To qualify, states must meet conditions the agency says are designed to protect election infrastructure from foreign interference, cyberattacks, and insider threats.
According to Fox News, which first reported the policy, states seeking grants must submit plans to move away from voting systems that use QR codes or barcodes in place of hand-marked paper ballots. DHS says paper ballots create a trail that allows officials to quickly assess any alleged irregularities.
After each federal election, participating states must also conduct a manual audit of at least 5% of all ballots cast. The agency says a manual, random review will confirm whether voting machine tabulations match paper ballots and help identify any manipulation.
States must also match the number of voters who participated in an election with the number of ballots cast. Within 120 days of any grant award, states must use the SAVE database to verify the citizenship of every listed voter. SAVE stands for Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements. Some Democratic governors have criticized the system as insufficiently maintained, a claim DHS has denied.
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin has made critical infrastructure protection a top priority, according to a department spokesperson. The agency said elections fall within that category and remain vulnerable to outside attack.
"Under President Trump's leadership, we are taking decisive action to protect election systems from threats like foreign interference, insider threats and cyberattacks," the DHS spokesperson said. "These new requirements for homeland security grant recipients will preserve election integrity and ensure that Americans can trust the results."
The move comes after a significant legal setback for the Trump administration on a related front. A federal judge in Pittsburgh, appointed by President Obama, sided with Pennsylvania after the Justice Department sued more than 25 states seeking voter records that included Social Security numbers. Judge Cathy Bissoon ruled that the federal government lacks the authority to demand those records.
President Trump and many Republicans have been critical of states that resist federal review of their voter rolls. They have also criticized what they describe as slow vote tabulations in states like California.
