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States and other eligible governments must adopt paper-ballot, auditing, citizenship-verification and poll-worker rules before receiving money through FEMA’s Homeland Security Grant Program.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security announced Friday that states and other eligible governments must comply with five new election security requirements before receiving funding from a $1 billion Federal Emergency Management Agency grant program.
The conditions will apply to recipients of FEMA’s Homeland Security Grant Program, including states, Tribal Nations, territories and local governments. DHS described the requirements as “common-sense steps” intended to strengthen public confidence in federal election results.
“Election security is national security and protecting the Nation’s critical infrastructure is a top priority,” DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said Friday.
Under the first requirement, states must submit plans explaining how they will transition away from electronic voting systems that DHS characterized as “unsecure” because they rely on bar codes or QR codes. The replacement systems must accept ballots marked by hand on paper.
The second condition requires states to conduct audits of at least 5 percent of ballots randomly selected from a federal election, including presidential contests. The review is intended to verify that voter selections recorded on paper ballots correspond with the results entered into voting machines.
“Under President [Donald] Trump’s leadership, we are taking decisive action to protect election systems from threats like foreign interference, insider threats, and cyberattacks,” Mullin said.
A third requirement directs states to confirm that the total number of people recorded as voting in a federal election matches the number of ballots cast.
The fourth measure requires election officials to verify the citizenship status of everyone included in state voter-registration databases. States must conduct those checks using the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements system, commonly known as SAVE.
Under the fifth requirement, states must verify that all individuals working at polling places are U.S. citizens.
DHS said compliance with the entire five-part framework will be required before recipients can obtain grant funding.
“These new requirements for homeland security grant recipients will preserve election integrity and ensure that Americans can trust the results,” Mullin said.
The announcement came on the same day Trump removed two of the three remaining members of the Election Assistance Commission. The commission’s final member resigned, leaving the independent bipartisan agency without its remaining commissioners.
A White House official defended the removals in a July 10 statement.
“The President, and head of the Executive Branch, 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,” the official said.
The Election Assistance Commission is responsible for supporting election officials and helping protect voting equipment. According to the commission’s stated mission, it works to “make elections safe, secure, accurate, and accessible.”
The new grant conditions place federal funding behind the administration’s election policy objectives by requiring recipients to document changes to voting equipment, perform ballot audits, reconcile voter and ballot totals, verify voter citizenship and confirm the citizenship of polling-place workers.
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