Trump administration has been sued by a coalition of mostly Democratic-led states that asked a federal judge on Thursday to block the Department of Homeland Security from withholding certain disaster-related funds.
The states want to stop the withholding until they adopt election administration practices favored by the Republican President.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Rhode Island by 25 states and the District of Columbia, marks the latest legal battle over voting procedures ahead of November’s midterm elections. Trump’s party is locked in a tight battle to retain control of Congress.
In announcing the restrictions on more than $1 billion in grant money, DHS called the changes it was seeking “common-sense steps to protect U.S. elections.”
DHS said on July 10 that it would withhold 20% of Federal Emergency Management Agency grant awards meant to help states prepare for potential terrorist attacks and other threats.
The funds would be withheld until those states submit plans to use equipment that accepts hand-marked paper ballots rather than electronic voting systems that use bar codes and QR codes to count votes.
DHS said states also would have to manually audit at least 5% of ballots cast.
They would also have to reconcile the number of voters who participated in each federal election with the number of votes cast and compare their voter rolls to a DHS database to make sure no non-U.S. citizens were improperly registered to vote.
The U.S. Constitution assigns states the role of administering federal elections.
In their lawsuit, the states led by Rhode Island, California, Illinois and New Jersey said the administration’s plans to condition the funds on election changes exceeded the federal government’s authority.
The lawsuit complaint read, “Congress never gave DHS or FEMA authority to rewrite state election law.”
The states said they were allocated more than $740 million in the 2026 fiscal year, meaning DHS would withhold at least $148 million under the disputed policy.
The grant programs have existed for years, and none of them were designed with election security specifically in mind, the lawsuit said.
Trump and his allies have made false claims about widespread voting fraud in U.S. elections, including the 2020 presidential election that he lost.
Democrats and voting rights advocates say Trump is seeking to undermine public confidence in election administration and lay the groundwork for challenging the results of the midterms should Republicans lose control of either the House of Representatives or the Senate.
The administration has said states are not doing enough to prevent voter fraud and voting by non-U.S. citizens. It has sought to bolster federal control over elections.
The Democratic governor of New Jersey said on Tuesday that more than 6,000 non-U.S. citizens were accidentally registered to vote in the state.
Meanwhile, nearly 400 cast ballots, prompting demands from the Justice Department for data on these voters.
