By The Epoch Times | Created at 2026-09-29 17:46:59 | Updated at 2026-09-29 18:53:20
1 hour ago
A federal judge on Sept. 28 said the U.S. government can’t withhold counterterrorism funding to compel municipalities to enact changes to election administration.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was illegally not providing funding for counterterrorism efforts to states and local governments unless they made five changes to elections, including using equipment that can process hand-marked paper ballots, conducting a manual audit of five percent of cast votes, and using a federal immigration database to verify that all registered voters are U.S. citizens, according to legal complaints.
“By denying states and localities funds for border security, cybersecurity, and counterterrorism programs, FEMA leaves those communities less safe—under the guise of enforcing Election Administration Conditions it has no authority to impose,” one of the suits stated.
U.S. District Judge Amir Ali, based in Washington, agreed.
“Congress did not authorize the grant program to be used for the sort of election administration reforms FEMA demands here—changes that, whether sound or not as a matter of policy, are not advanced to prepare for or respond to ‘acts of terrorism,’” Ali said in a 24-page opinion in favor of local governments in Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas.
A lawyer representing the governments did not return a request for comment by the time of publication.
“Election security is national security, and protecting critical infrastructure remains a top priority for the Trump Administration. FEMA is reviewing the court’s decision and will comply with the court’s order,” Victoria Barton, a FEMA spokeswoman, told The Epoch Times in an email.
“The ruling does not affect FEMA’s broader mission to support state and local partners in preventing, preparing for, protecting against, and responding to terrorism, including through eligible physical and cybersecurity investments that protect election infrastructure.”
Ali vacated FEMA policy governing the withholding of grant money under the Homeland Security Grant Program and an earlier notice from FEMA’s parent agency outlining the conditions.
The program, which Congress created in 2003 to help state and local governments prepare for, respond to, and recover from acts of terrorism, typically distributes $1 billion to $2 billion annually to municipalities.
In July, the Department of Homeland Security, in a notice regarding funding through the program, said that election systems are a target for adversaries and that funding recipients must spend at least 3 percent of allocated funds on securing election infrastructure.
The department, FEMA’s parent agency, outlined the conditions that state and urban officials must meet to receive 20 percent of the funds, including a plan to transition from electronic voting systems that only process bar or QR codes to equipment that accepts paper ballots.
In August, FEMA alerted all state homeland security directors and other state and local officials of the new requirements.
In court filings, federal lawyers said the steps taken by the government were lawful, since Congress said funding should go to addressing “threat, vulnerability, and consequences related to critical infrastructure (for all infrastructure sectors) or key resources identified by the Administrator” of FEMA.
“Congress both delegated considerable discretion to FEMA to effectuate the goals of its grant programs, and made clear that, as a designated critical infrastructure subset subject to documented evolving threats, election infrastructure falls within the … statute,” they said in one filing.
