The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced plans to withhold billions in preparedness grant funding from states that refuse to adopt new election-security measures, including voter citizenship verification, post-election audits, and expanded use of paper ballots.

Election Security Measures

The push comes as President Donald Trump and many Republicans have criticized states that do not want to let the federal government audit their voter rolls, while also criticizing the slow vote tabulations in places like California.

FEMA, a sub-agency of DHS, is making more than $1 billion in taxpayer funding available to states that want to participate in its Homeland Security Grant Program, but with certain conditions. To qualify for grants, states must submit plans to transition away from unsecure electronic voting systems that employ QR codes or barcodes instead of hand-marked paper ballots.

After each federal election, states seeking preparedness grants must conduct a manual audit of at least 5% of all ballots cast. States must also match the number of voters who participated in the election with the number of ballots cast and, within 120 days of any grant award, use the SAVE database to verify the citizenship of every listed voter in the state.

SAVE Database

The SAVE database, which has been criticized by some Democratic governors for being insufficiently maintained, will be used to verify the citizenship of voters. DHS has denied these assertions, stating that the database is a crucial tool in ensuring election integrity.

DHS told Fox News Digital that threats to election systems continue to evolve and that Secretary Markwayne Mullin has made critical infrastructure protection a top priority, with a spokesperson suggesting elections fall within that critical infrastructure and remain susceptible to foreign attacks.

The new rules come as the Trump administration suffered a major loss in court while seeking to force the issue of election security. An Obama-appointed federal judge in Pittsburgh sided with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania after the Justice Department sued more than 25 states seeking voter records that included Social Security numbers.

Original reporting: Fox News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.