Feds threaten state election officials with funding cuts, prosecution Sarah D. Wire, USA TODAYFri, July 17, 2026 at 8:36 PM UTC 64 States that don&x27;t comply with new Trump administration election security edicts and agree to use a federal database for identifying noncitizen voters will not receive federal reimbursement for elections, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced July 17. Uncooperative state officials could face fines or prison time, if Homeland Security uncovers that noncitizens cast ballots, Mullin added.
Feds threaten state election officials with funding cuts, prosecution
Sarah D. Wire, USA TODAYFri, July 17, 2026 at 8:36 PM UTC
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States that don't comply with new Trump administration election security edicts and agree to use a federal database for identifying noncitizen voters will not receive federal reimbursement for elections, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced July 17.
Uncooperative state officials could face fines or prison time, if Homeland Security uncovers that noncitizens cast ballots, Mullin added.
“We’re saying that the machines had to be secured and that your voter restoration list needs to be scrubbed,” Mullin told reporters. “I will tell you if the states choose not to participate – we will make sure that we make those states a priority to look at who voted in their states and hold the election officials accountable."
Mullin made his threat a day after President Donald Trump announced during a prime time White House speech that a “stunning investigation" by DHS found 278,000 noncitizens registered to vote in federal elections. DHS, according to Mullin, found noncitizens registered to vote in California, Pennsylvania, Nevada and New Jersey, using publicly available information.
Federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting in U.S. elections. At the same time, there is no evidence that noncitizen voting has ever been significant enough to impact an election’s outcome, according to a 2026 Bipartisan Policy Center report. States routinely review the accuracy of their voter rolls and sporadic cases of noncitizen voting are investigated and prosecuted.
Election experts pushed back against the Trump administration, saying its methodology was flawed and relied on commercial data that has a lot of inconsistency, rather than state voter files.
"Commercial data does not allow comparison to the public voter file in any conceivable way because of common names, because you lack personal identifiable information – unique identifiers like drivers license numbers or Social Security" numbers, said David Becker, a former Justice Department lawyer who leads the Center for Election Innovation & Research, a nonprofit. "You don't even have dates of birth in some cases."
"I predict almost all of them are actually citizens, and actually the states will be breaking federal law by removing them from the voter list at the urging of the federal government."
No reimbursements
The impact of Mullin's threat may not be as great as some might expect. He did not specify which federal grant would be withheld. And his agency did not respond to a request for more information.
"This is a laughable threat," Becker said. "There is no significant pool of federal grant money appropriated, so this threat has no teeth for any state. None of them are expecting any significant federal funds for elections."
While the federal government has provided some grants or other resources for election administration, that aid has been inconsistent. When available, funding most often comes through the federal Election Assistance Commission. Last week, Trump fired two of its three commissioners, leaving the panel without the quorum needed to make decisions ahead of the midterms.
The Help America Vote Act grants distributed by the commission for the 2025 fiscal year totaled $55 million, according to former Commissioner Ben Hovland, who was fired by Trump. The money was split among all 50 states, five territories and the District of Columbia. The year before, the grants totaled $15 million, Hovland said.
"We saw the administration spend that on the lining of the reflecting pool," he said.
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Hovland pointed to an MIT Election Data and Science Lab study that showed state and local governments spend as much as $6 billion to administer elections.
In most states, the cost of elections is borne primarily by counties and local jurisdictions, even though state and federal races are on the ballot along with local races. In large part, state and local governments pay for elections through taxes.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold said most federal election-related grants go to local law enforcement, not to election administration at the state or local level. It is not money states rely on, she said. Griswold added she expects Mullin's threat to be quickly challenged in court, if he tries to withhold money.
Data limitations
DHS's finding that 278,000 noncitizens are registered to vote in federal elections comes from publicly available or commercial information, in large part because many states have refused to share their voter rolls with the federal government.
The Justice Department demanded voter rolls from all 50 states over the past two years. At least 17 Republican-led states complied. But officials in many other states – led by both Republicans and Democrats – refused, citing privacy laws against sharing personal information and the lack of federal authority over the lists.
The DOJ has sued 30 states and the District of Columbia for unredacted lists. It has lost all 16 of the lawsuits that have been resolved. Many have since been appealed.
SAVE system
Mullin said DHS also discovered 28,000 noncitizens and 400,000 dead people on the rolls from 23 states who used the Trump administration’s newly modified Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements system, an information clearinghouse that combines citizenship data with information from the Social Security Administration.
In late June, a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from using the new system, saying it was knowingly providing inaccurate data to states that are now “actively” and “haphazardly” purging purported noncitizens from voter rolls.
“The federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote,” U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan wrote in a 75-page ruling. “This Court cannot stand idly by while that happens.”
More: A road trip to save democracy? These judges say it's worth a shot
Mullin referred to the decision as coming from an "activist judge."
“Any judge and any God-fearing individual that loves this country should want to make sure that our elections are secure,” he said.
In July, a federal judge in Florida ordered Mullin's department to continue letting some states use the system, setting up a conflict that will likely push the fight to an appellate court.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Feds threaten state election officials with funding cuts, prosecution
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Published: July 17, 2026 at 06:54PM on Source: PRIME TIME
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