El Paso County is joining a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over attempts to use public safety grants as leverage to alter how states and local governments administer elections.
The lawsuit was filed Monday, Aug. 17, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. El Paso County joined Harris County, the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee, and the City of Columbus, Ohio, in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit challenges a decision by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, to withhold 20% of funding for certain emergency relief grant programs unless the county complies with the Trump administration's new requirements for how local elections are held.
“Holding critical grant
funding hostage to advance a false political narrative is unlawful," El Paso County Attorney Christina Sanchez said in a news release. "It comes at the direct expense of local election offices, law enforcement agencies, and the communities they are entrusted to serve."
For El Paso County, the changes from DHS would put $1.75 million in law enforcement funding at risk, as well as more than $170,000 in first-responder funding. Following is a breakdown of some of the other election-related requirements in the new rules:
- Transition to hand-marked paper ballots instead of the electronic voting systems currently used in El Paso County, which would cost approximately $3 million just for the printers needed to produce the ballots;
- Manually audit at least 5% of ballots, which would add significant new costs and be contrary to state law in some cases;
- Use the error-prone Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system to “verify” the citizenship of every registered voter and election worker.
Sanchez said complying with the requirements would be "costly and burdensome" for local governments.
El Paso County's lawsuit comes as at least 25 states and the District of Columbia have filed similar legal challenges seeking to block the requirements before the 2026 midterm elections.
Jeff Abbott covers the border for the El Paso Times and can be reached at:jdabbott@usatodayco.com; @palabrasdeabajo on Twitter or @palabrasdeabajo.bsky.social on Bluesky.
Adam Powell covers government and politics for the El Paso Times and can be reached via email at apowell@elpasotimes.com.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: El Paso County could lose $1.75M in grants under new DHS election rules
