FEMA Threatens to Withhold Terror-Preparedness Grants to Push States to Revise Voting Rules

Overview

• Federal officials have told states they may withhold 20 percent of certain terrorism-preparedness grants unless states provide proof they adopted specified election changes.
• The Justice Department’s civil rights division sent near-identical letters, signed by Harmeet Dhillon, asking multiple state election officials for rapid responses about noncitizen voting and compliance with federal law.
• The administration is urging states to shift to hand-marked paper ballots, conduct routine manual audits of five percent of ballots, and use citizenship-verification checks to flag noncitizen votes.
• Election-security experts and voting-rights groups warn the proposals could slow counts, raise millions in new costs, produce false-positive matches in the SAVE verification system, and make it harder for eligible voters to cast ballots.
• Courts have already blocked related executive actions for exceeding federal authority, states are resisting, and further litigation and administrative challenges are likely if grant conditions are enforced.