Trump administration threatens to withhold DHS funds to force election changes

The Trump administration is planning to condition federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) grant money on states adopting a set of election‑integrity measures. Under draft guidelines, states would have to phase out electronic voting systems in favor of hand‑marked paper ballots, conduct manual election audits, and run their voter rolls through the DHS Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) citizenship database. States that refuse could lose up to 20 % of their DHS awards, amounting to tens of millions of dollars from a funding pool that exceeds $1 billion this fiscal year and that also supports terrorism prevention, infrastructure protection and disaster preparedness.

The proposed rules target jurisdictions such as Delaware, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina and Los Angeles County. A DHS spokesperson said the requirements are not official until formally published, while legal experts expect the measures to face court challenges, noting that the Constitution gives states primary authority over elections. Critics argue the policy is a political lever to pressure states into adopting the administration’s voter‑fraud narrative.