Source: FOX News
Summary
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will 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. To qualify for grants, states must submit plans to transition away from “unsecure electronic voting systems” and conduct manual audits of at least 5% of all ballots cast. States must also verify the citizenship of every listed voter in the state using the SAVE database.
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As expected, the matter has reached another stage.
The Department of Homeland Security is making more than $1 billion in taxpayer funding available to states that want to participate in its Homeland Security Grant Program, but with a catch. States must adopt new election-security measures, including voter citizenship verification and manual audits. The agency argues that these measures will preserve election integrity and ensure that Americans can trust the results. The new rules come as the Trump administration suffered a major loss in court while seeking to force the issue of election security.
States must now verify the citizenship of every listed voter in the state using the SAVE database. The SAVE database has been criticized by some Democratic governors for being insufficiently upkept. The new rules may or may not be tested in a similar fashion.
The process has entered a familiar phase: the tug-of-war between the federal government and states over election security. The Department of Homeland Security is taking decisive action to protect election systems from threats, while states are pushing back against what they see as an overreach of federal power.
And so, the ritual continues: the back-and-forth between the federal government and states, the court battles, and the heated rhetoric. The performance is familiar, the script well-rehearsed.
But amidst the familiar, there is a subtle shift: the SAVE database, once a tool for verifying the eligibility of immigrants for government benefits, is now being used to verify the citizenship of voters. The database, once a minor player in the election security drama, has taken center stage.
