President Trump’s Department of Homeland Security is tying full federal security grants to random hand counts of paper ballots, with Secretary Markwayne Mullin warning that Chinese-made voting-machine parts create security risks.

The warning appears in an August 24 letter to the White House Transparency Task Force that was made public Thursday. Mullin says the risks can begin before a voting machine ever reaches an election office.

Under the department’s grant conditions, states must check a random sample of paper ballots against machine totals after federal elections. The requirement is part of Mullin’s broader election-security push:

Just the News reported Thursday that DHS will require the audits for the midterm elections, citing Mullin’s newly released letter and concerns about foreign components in the country’s most widely used voting systems.

The report traces those concerns to testimony before the 2020 election, when executives from major vendors acknowledged using parts manufactured in China. It also notes that lawmakers had questioned voting-system security before that election, including Democratic inquiries into the companies’ cybersecurity practices and ownership.

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In a 2019 interview cited in the report, ES&S chief executive Tom Burt defended the security of the company’s overseas facilities and said final assembly occurred in the United States. The company separately maintained that its components were tested and free of malware.

Mullin’s Department of Homeland Security letter identifies nine vendors serving U.S. elections and says three companies, ES&S, Hart InterCivic and Dominion, account for more than 80% of the market.

Representatives of all three have acknowledged Chinese-made components, according to the letter. Mullin cites their congressional testimony explaining that certain parts lack alternative suppliers, including components tied to patents or particular circuit designs.

His concern is that a component could be altered during manufacturing and become an entry point for an attack after installation. The letter describes the possibility of coordinated attacks affecting multiple machines and jurisdictions.

Mullin says states receiving full Homeland Security Grant Program awards must demonstrate that they performed random manual counts after an election to check for errors or manipulation.

Reporter Catherine Herridge published both pages of the letter. She also reported an administration official’s statement that there is no intelligence showing China successfully manipulated an American vote count:

The funding mechanism was laid out by DHS on July 10. The department said FEMA would withhold 20% of a recipient’s Homeland Security Grant Program award until it submits proof of compliance and DHS verifies it.

Those conditions include manually auditing at least 5% of ballots after each federal election and reconciling the number of participating voters with the number of ballots cast.

States must also submit plans to move away from equipment that counts votes using bar codes or QR codes and toward equipment accepting hand-marked paper ballots.

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The announcement includes citizenship checks for voter-registration databases and election workers. It gives states 120 days after accepting an award to complete the voter-database requirement, subject to the court-related qualification described in the release.

DHS describes the grant program as voluntary: governments apply for funding and agree to its conditions. Mullin’s new letter reiterates that connection between full grant awards and post-election paper-ballot checks.

The letter also cites two 2024 intelligence assessments concerning Chinese cyber operations and foreign governments’ ability to access some election-related networks. Herridge linked those assessments and the vendor testimony here:

The documents describe vulnerabilities and potential access, not proof that a foreign government changed an American election result. Mullin says DHS is reviewing additional records for possible declassification and will continue producing documents for the task force.

This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.

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