Nashville and several other local governments have sued the Department of Homeland Security over new rules tying federal anti-terrorism funding to changes in how states administer elections, including citizenship checks for voters and poll workers.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., by Nashville, Columbus, Ohio, and El Paso and Harris counties in Texas, challenges conditions DHS imposed on its Homeland Security Grant Program, which provides funding for equipment, training and other resources used to prevent and respond to terrorism and emergencies.
Under requirements announced by DHS in July, recipients must conduct manual audits of at least 5% of ballots after federal elections, reconcile the number of voters who participated with ballots cast and submit plans to transition away from voting systems that use barcodes or QR codes to count votes.
States must also verify the citizenship of registered voters through the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, system, and check the citizenship of people working at polling places or operating election systems. FEMA, which administers the grants through DHS, will withhold 20% of recipients' awards until they demonstrate compliance.
The plaintiffs argue that the administration lacks authority to attach election-related conditions to the program. "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 complaint says, according to Nashville's WPLN News.
"This lawsuit seeks to secure necessary funding that would provide equipment and training to Nashville's first responders in handling emergency or terrorist events in our city," Metro Legal Director Tyler Yarbro said. "The Trump administration wants to withhold those funds unless we implement wholly unnecessary and costly changes to our election procedures."
DHS has defended the requirements as measures intended to protect election infrastructure. "Election security is national security," DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said when announcing the policy, citing threats including foreign interference, insider threats and cyberattacks.
A FEMA spokesperson separately described the lawsuit to WPLN as "partisan pushback," saying states must take election-security steps before receiving their full grant awards.
The dispute also comes after a federal judge in June found the Trump administration's current use of SAVE for voter verification unlawful. DHS acknowledged that ruling when announcing its grant requirements and outlined an alternative immigration-records search process for cases in which states lack citizenship documentation.
