States Sue to Stop Trump Administration Effort to Control Elections

The Trump administration has threatened to withhold federal emergency disaster preparation funding from states that don’t comply with new election rules.

Election 2026 Arizona

The Department of Homeland Security has threatened to withhold funding from any state that doesn’t adopt strict new election procedures. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Twenty-five states and Washington, D.C., are suing the Trump administration for trying to use federal emergency grant funding to control state election rules.

The Department of Homeland Security has threatened to withhold 20% of Federal Emergency Management Agency homeland security funding from any state that doesn’t adopt strict new election procedures preferred by President Donald Trump.

Those rules from DHS include using hand-marked paper ballots instead of machines, the implementation of the SAVE database to search for registered voters who could be noncitizens, and handing the federal government information about state voter rolls.