Cities, counties sue over election rules tied to security funds

FEMA says it will withhold 20% of funds pending compliance

Two counties and two cities sued the Trump administration Monday over the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s decision to condition national security funding on local governments adopting sweeping election procedures, which the plaintiffs call illegal federal overreach.

The Brennan Center for Justice filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of Nashville and Davidson County, Tenn.; Harris and El Paso counties, Texas; and Columbus, asking the court to declare the decision to impose election-administration conditions on the grants unlawful and to enjoin its enforcement.

“This is the kind of federal overreach we’ve come to expect from the Trump administration,” Harris County Attorney Abbie Kamin said in a statement. “To threaten law enforcement and public safety funding our agencies rely on, to withhold dollars that protect our communities for a partisan power grab is not only improper, it’s dangerous.”

Since returning to office, President Donald Trump has taken a series of actions he says are meant to improve election integrity and security but that Democrats and civil rights advocates have described as efforts to interfere with and undermine U.S. elections.

In June, FEMA, under the Department of Homeland Security, updated compliance requirements for Homeland Security Grant Program funds, which help local governments prevent terrorism. The added conditions include creating a plan for transitioning to hand-marked paper ballots, conducting a 5% post-election manual audit, and citizenship verification for all poll workers and registered voters, among others.

FEMA said it will withhold 20% of the recipient’s total HSGP funding until receipt of proof of compliance with the new requirements.

The jurisdictions described the withholding as FEMA holding their money “hostage” and the new election-related conditions “arbitrary and capricious.” “Never before has FEMA purported to regulate how states and counties run elections,” they said in the lawsuit, arguing that such a change would require congressional authorization, which FEMA does not have. “The power to administer elections belongs to the states, subject only to conditions imposed by Congress — not the president, not the secretary of Homeland Security and not FEMA.”

The plaintiffs said FEMA has not provided a “reasoned explanation” for the change in funding administration while ignoring the legal, financial and logistical “chaos” the new conditions will cause with midterm elections less than two months away, and the potential harm withholding anti-terrorism funds could cause.

“Holding cities hostage by threatening anti-terrorism funding if they don’t go along with the president’s absurd election manipulation is as dangerous as it is illegal,” Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein said in a statement. “We’re fighting back to protect public safety and election integrity. We will not be bullied by this president and his administration.”