Trump administration ramps up pressure on states to change election practices
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- The Trump administration is escalating efforts to reshape how states run elections, threatening arrests and withholding federal funds unless officials purge noncitizens and overhaul voting systems months before the 2026 midterms.
- New Justice Department letters and FEMA grant conditions demand citizenship checks, paper ballots and audits, prompting urgent logistical questions for election officials and raising fears of federal overreach into traditionally state-run voting.
- States are splitting largely along party lines, with Democratic secretaries of state denouncing the push as intimidation and Republicans embracing it, even as courts repeatedly reject Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud.
President Trump’s administration is threatening to withhold some federal funding from states that don’t make changes to voting practices and is warning state election officials that they face arrest if they don’t remove noncitizens from voter rolls.
Letters to states and grant application details are the latest in a line of actions by the Trump administration to shape details of running elections that have long been the job of states.
Courts have largely rejected the administration’s previous efforts, which reflect untrue claims about widespread voting fraud and come less than four months ahead of crucial midterm elections in which Democrats seek to take control of one or both chambers of Congress and check Trump’s power.
“The overall point is that Trump is trying to use whatever levers of power and persuasive power that he might have to try to interfere with how states and localities are going to conduct the 2026 election,” said Rick Hasen, a UCLA law professor and the director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project. “Some of this is aimed at changing how the rules are conducted. Some of it appears to be aimed at undermining voter confidence in the integrity of the election process.”
Justice Department warns election officials of prosecution
In letters sent Tuesday, to election officials for all 50 states and the District of Columbia — often secretaries of state — the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division said they and other election administrators could face criminal charges if they knowingly allow nonvoters to vote or remain on voting rolls.
It also called on the states to tell the federal government within five days how they intend to comply with the law.
Derek Muller, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame who specializes in election law, said it’s not clear the 50-state letter means anything more than restating some parts of the law, with a request to follow up, “which I’m sure many states will ignore.”
The letter also warns that anyone who knowingly and willfully gives false information in registering to vote or voting would face criminal prosecution.
Antiterrorism grants include election requirements
A Federal Emergency Management Agency antiterrorism grant announcement in June includes a list of election-related requirements, saying 20% of grants for states and urban areas would be withheld until they comply.
The program includes more than $1 billion for states and local and tribal governments for a variety of programs aimed at preventing terror at crowded places, online, with border security — and around elections. FEMA expects to award 56 grants.
“Recipients can ensure that their efforts contribute to a secure, transparent, and resilient electoral process, thereby reinforcing public trust and the integrity of democratic institutions,” the grant announcement says, noting that securing election infrastructure is a national security priority.
The list of items for states includes verifying the citizenship of all registered voters and election workers.
Places that use electronic voting systems that use bar codes or QR codes to count votes would have to submit plans to switch to hand-marked paper ballots. Every jurisdiction would have to show that it audits results.
UCLA’s Hasen said it could be difficult even for states that want to comply. It’s too close to the midterm election to make some of the changes, he said, and some would require state legislatures to pass new laws.
The White House on Wednesday referred questions to FEMA, which did not immediately respond to an interview request.
Response from states appears to be partisan
Some states are pushing back, while others are defending the latest actions.
They seem to be breaking along party lines.
Oregon’s secretary of state, Democrat Tobias Read, accused the Justice Department of “knocking on our door again with more threats and no evidence to back up their fever dreams about nonexistent voter fraud.”
Oregon elections are secure, accurate, and fair, he said, adding that he isn’t “intimidated by political threats or manufactured controversy.”
The Michigan secretary of state’s office, headed by Democrat Jocelyn Benson, said it has discussed its work repeatedly with the Justice Department and in public statements, congressional hearings and court testimony — information that it said “is either in the DOJ’s possession or easy reach.”
“We will be happy to provide it again to help address any confusion,” the office said in a statement.
In a statement, Ohio Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose defended the Justice Department’s missive to states, saying it’s reminding them of their legal obligations regarding election integrity. A lot of states aren’t taking it seriously, he said, without giving examples or citing evidence. He said Ohio has worked with the federal government to ensure its voter rolls are accurate and that only U.S. citizens vote.
Georgia’s secretary of state’s office said the state has already taken many of the actions required by the FEMA announcement, including a citizenship audit of voter rolls.
Several of Trump’s election actions have faced resistance
Trump has repeatedly and wrongly asserted that fraud cost him reelection in 2020, and his administration has put forth a series of policies and actions aimed at how elections are run.
In recent days, courts have rejected the Justice Department’s effort to collect the names and contact information of every election worker in Georgia in the 2020 election and others trying to force New Hampshire and Pennsylvania to turn over detailed information about registered voters. With those rulings, the federal government has lost similar cases more than 10 times around its requests for details from 30 states and the District of Columbia.
Last week, a group of Democratic governors asked the U.S. Postal Service to withdraw its proposed rule seeking to implement an order from Trump to create a list of eligible voters — and potentially limit who can receive a ballot in the mail. A court previously put the order on hold, saying it was unconstitutional.
Also last week, the Supreme Court rebuked Trump and ruled that states can count mailed ballots that arrive after election day.
Mulvihill and Levy write for the Associated Press. AP writers Gabriela Aoun Angueira, Bill Barrow, Kate Brumback and Josh Kelety contributed to this report.
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