The Trump administration is escalating its campaign to reshape state-run elections less than four months before the 2026 midterms, warning election officials they could face criminal charges and threatening to withhold federal terrorism-prevention funds from states that do not adopt new voting practices.
The pressure campaign now has two fronts. On Tuesday, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division sent letters to election officials in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, warning that officials could face prosecution if they knowingly allow non citizens to remain on voter rolls or cast ballots. Separately, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has said it will withhold 20 percent of certain Homeland Security Grant Program funds from states and urban areas until they show compliance with election-related requirements.
Together, the actions mark a sharp federal intervention into election administration, an area traditionally run by states and local governments. The demands also arrive as states are preparing for midterm elections that will determine control of Congress and test whether voters can check Trump’s power in Washington.
The Justice Department letters were sent by Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general who leads the department’s Civil Rights Division. Reuters reported that Dhillon warned election officials they could be charged under several federal laws if they knowingly retain non citizens on state voter registration lists or help non citizens receive and cast ballots. The letters asked states to respond within five days about how they intend to comply with federal law.
The administration has framed the effort as a defense of election integrity. A Justice Department spokesperson told Reuters that the letters were sent to every state and D.C. to seek voluntary compliance with legal obligations to ensure that only citizens vote in federal elections.
But election officials and voting-rights advocates say the threat rests on a false premise. Non citizen voting is already illegal in federal elections, and states already maintain voter rolls to remove people who are ineligible because of death, relocation, duplicate registration, felony status where applicable, or lack of citizenship. Repeated claims of widespread non citizen voting have not been backed by evidence.
The Justice Department warnings also follow a string of courtroom setbacks. The Associated Press reported that courts have rejected more than 10 similar federal efforts to obtain voter information from 30 states and the District of Columbia. In recent days, courts rejected Justice Department efforts to obtain information about election workers in Georgia and detailed voter data from New Hampshire and Pennsylvania.
The second pressure point comes through FEMA funding. A June FEMA grant announcement tied more than $1 billion in Homeland Security Grant Program funding to election requirements. AP reported that the program includes money for states, local governments, tribal governments, and urban areas for efforts tied to terrorism prevention, border security, crowded places, online threats, and election infrastructure. FEMA expects to award 56 grants.
Under the grant notice, 20 percent of certain funds would be withheld until recipients prove compliance with election security requirements. Those requirements include verifying the citizenship of registered voters and election workers, showing audits of election results, and requiring jurisdictions that use voting systems relying on bar codes or QR codes for counting to submit plans to switch to hand-marked paper ballots.
That creates practical and legal conflicts for states. Some election systems are governed by state law, not federal grant administrators. Some changes would require legislative action. Some jurisdictions rely on ballot-marking devices for accessibility under disability-rights laws. And with the midterms approaching, election law experts warn that sudden changes to voting equipment, mail-ballot rules, or voter-roll procedures can confuse voters and strain already overburdened local election offices.
UCLA law professor Rick Hasen told AP that the federal push is coming too close to the election for some states to comply, even if they wanted to. He said some changes would require state legislatures to pass new laws. That timing has intensified concern that the point may not be clean administration, but disruption.
State responses have split along partisan lines, though not entirely. Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read accused the Justice Department of returning with “more threats and no evidence” to support claims of voter fraud. Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s office said the information sought by DOJ had already been discussed with the department or was easily available. Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said his state would continue following Arizona law rather than political intimidation.
Some Republican officials defended the administration’s move. Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose said the letters remind states of their legal obligations and argued that some states are not taking election integrity seriously. Georgia officials said the state has already taken many of the steps sought through the FEMA grant requirements, including a citizenship audit of voter rolls.
But even Utah’s Republican lieutenant governor, Deidre Henderson, criticized the Justice Department letters, according to The Guardian. Henderson, Utah’s top elections officer, described the letter as a federal threat aimed at state officials who had resisted DOJ demands for private voter data that courts have repeatedly found unlawful.
The pressure campaign is part of a longer effort by Trump and his allies to shift control over elections away from state and local officials. Trump has continued to make false claims that fraud cost him the 2020 election, and his administration has pursued voter data, citizenship checks, mail-ballot restrictions, and federal leverage over election equipment and procedures.
Last week, Democratic governors asked the U.S. Postal Service to withdraw a proposed rule tied to Trump’s election order that would create a list of eligible voters and could limit who receives mail ballots. A court had already put that order on hold after finding it unconstitutional. AP also reported that the Supreme Court recently rebuked Trump’s position and ruled that states may count mailed ballots that arrive after Election Day.
For voters, the danger is not limited to one letter or one grant notice. It is the cumulative effect of threats, lawsuits, funding conditions, and public claims of fraud, all aimed at election systems that depend on clear rules and voter trust. Local election workers are already operating in an environment of harassment and political pressure. Adding criminal warnings from the Justice Department raises the stakes for officials who are trying to administer elections under state law.
Voting-rights advocates say the administration’s actions may be designed to create confusion that can later be used to question results. Robert Weiner, director of the voting rights project for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, told AP that non citizen voting is “infinitesimally small.” He warned that the administration may be trying to manufacture turmoil before ballots are cast. “I predict that the president is trying to create chaos and then use that chaos to take drastic measures in states that oppose his policies or to refuse to recognize the results of the elections in those states.”
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