Trump’s DHS ties election security grants to voting policy : NPR

The electoral workers treat the voting ballots of the absent on November 4, 2024 in Portland, Maine. Maine renounces around $ 130,000 in electoral security grant because the State does not plan to comply with the new requirements of the Trump administration.

David Sharp / AP

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David Sharp / AP

The Trump administration said it could retain tens of millions of dollars in election security financing if the States do not comply with its voting policy targets.

The money comes from a grant program from the Ministry of Internal Security (DHS), and those responsible for the vote claim that new administration requirements will make money inaccessible to the majority of the country.

NPR is the first media to account for changes.

About 28 million dollars – or 3% of the overall home security subsidy program – are devoted to election safety and now at risk, although some officials and experts fear that new requirements can also endanger hundreds of millions of dollars in other grants for the application of the law.

Voting officials claim that the amount of money in danger will not break the country’s electoral security. But the potential restraint of funds concerning policy differences – combined with other recent electoral security cuts – wonders a lot if the Trump administration prioritizes elections as it claims.

“Despite the rhetoric, there was [a] A serious reduction in election security support that is offered in the United States, “said Larry Norden, elections expert in Brennan Center for Justice, which is widely critical of President Trump’s policies.” And this will be one more reduction for many states because most states will not allow the president to decide to decide to decide [how their elections work]. “”

The subsidy in question is administered within the DHS by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, and is supposed to help governments of states and local to prepare and prevent terrorism and disasters. For certain subsidies, the DHS designates the priority areas to aim for more about which money is spent, and three years ago, the agency began to designate election safety as one of these priorities.

This year, however, Trump ordered the DHS to adjust the security elections security part as part of his decree of March 25 on the vote (a large part of which was interrupted by the courts).

The new grant rules were published publicly at the end of July, and several electoral officials declared to NPR that they had seen them in the same way as this decree: a means for the administration to try to force their hands in matters of politics.

“The Ministry of Internal Security is trying to modify the modifications of our electoral laws,” said Shenna Bellows, Secretary of State of Maine, Democrat. “It’s unacceptable.”

The subsidy requests closed earlier this month and Maine renounces around $ 130,000 in electoral security subsidy because the State does not plan to comply with new requirements, said Bellows.

Another electoral official of the State, who spoke to NPR anonymously because they did not have the permission to speak publicly, said that their state also renounced money. They estimated that only a handful of electoral offices worked with their state emergency management services to develop grant requests in accordance with new electoral requirements and potentially access this money.

New requirements

It is also not known how the DHS will judge whether the states meet new requests.

One of the requirements, for example, is that the jurisdictions that apply for money must “prioritize compliance” to the federal directives for the certification of the voting system which are so new that they have not yet been incorporated in the country.

The FEMA, which manages subsidies, has not answered NPR questions on the new grant rules, in particular on the way in which such a provision would be judged by considering that no state is currently using the certified electoral equipment according to new standards. The DHS also did not respond immediately to the request for NPR comments.

Another new requirement is that the courts that require election security funds must use a new DHS citizenship check for all people working in a polling station of “any capacity”.

This tool, known as the backup system, was quickly widened by DHS this year, and the agency has not revealed anything publicly on the accuracy or reliability of the information provided by the system, nor on the way the personal data executed by the system will be secure.

It is not clear if the system has already been used to verify the electoral workers before, given the functionality that allows the system to search for citizens born in the United States only in recent months.

“The DHS cannot force us to use this system,” said Bellows.

Concerns about other law implementation grants

NPR previously reported that in previous years, part of the money in the subsidy program designated for election safety had not really gone to strengthen state voting infrastructure.

This subsidy electoral security part represents a low percentage of the global DHS subsidy program of $ 1 billion, but Norden of the Brennan Center is concerned about the rest of the subsidy could also be retained if the states do not comply with the rules of the elections.

In the section of new electoral requirements, there is a line which indicates that an applied jurisdiction must “demonstrate the proof of conformity before accessing the complete award”. Norden called the unclear and alarming line.

“You are talking about a billion dollars for local and local police to protect Americans from terrorism,” said Norden. “The idea that this money … could be somehow selected is alarming for anyone cares about the security and security of citizens.”

At the end of the new electoral subsidy requirements, there was another change compared to the rules of 2024. The language which explicitly prohibited to use subsidies for activities which “could be used to remove the registration or rate of participation of voters” has been deleted.