MarketPR
Four local governments filed suit against the Department of Homeland Security last week over the agency's move to withhold public safety grants unless jurisdictions adopt a set of election procedure changes, including mandatory paper ballots, proof of citizenship verification, and hand-counted audits of 5 percent of all ballots.
Harris County, Texas (which encompasses Houston), Columbus, Ohio, Nashville, Tennessee, and El Paso County, Texas, are named plaintiffs, each pointing to specific equipment and operations that depend on the grant money now at issue.
El Paso County Attorney Christina Sanchez told Axios that transitioning to paper ballots alone would cost her county $3 million.
The operational stakes Harris County and El Paso County said in the lawsuit that they had earmarked the grant funds to purchase equipment for detecting hazardous materials, chemicals, explosives, and biological weapons.
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