DHS chief threatens to prosecute election officials as Trump escalates fight over state voter rolls

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin threatened on Friday to prosecute election officials in states that don’t “participate in securing the elections” ahead of the November midterms. 

Election officials who do not comply with administration directives to enhance security of voting machines and to share voter data with the federal government through the powerful Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements computer program would be subject to fines and even prison time, he said.

“If the states that choose not to participate with the SAVE program and they choose not to participate in securing the elections, 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 said during a press conference. 

The Trump administration will make it mandatory for states to undergo security enhancements of their voter machines and withhold grants or reimbursements to any states that do not, he said.

The mandate was necessary, he said, because foreign adversaries produce parts that are vital pieces in U.S. voting machines, and can “change voter registration and your vote.”

“The machines have to be secured and your voter registration list needs to be scrubbed,” he said, summarizing the department’s message to state officials. “Our machines are vulnerable. There are steps that can be made right now that can secure those.”

Earlier Friday, Mullin sent a letter to the secretaries of state of four states the department reviewed — Nevada, California, New Jersey and Pennsylvania — to warn them of the “tens of thousands of non-citizens who are illegally on the states’ voter rolls.”

Leaders from those states immediately pushed back against Mullin and President Donald Trump’s claims. 

It is unclear what authority Mullin would use to investigate state election administration. The U.S. Constitution empowers states to run elections.

But it is clear the Trump administration considers election security a top priority in the leadup to the midterms.

Mullin’s remarks followed President Donald Trump’s address to the nation Thursday evening in which he declared that the U.S. election systems are vulnerable to foreign cyberattacks and nations such as China and Iran have sought to influence the outcome of past elections, including in 2018 and 2020. 

Noncitizen voting

Trump has long focused on voting by noncitizens, which is rare. 

Mullin on Friday said the Homeland Security Department reviewed voter rolls in a handful of states and discovered more than 250,000 noncitizens who were registered to vote. 

The federal government will make it a priority to “look at who voted in their states” and hold their election officials accountable, Mullin said. 

The federal government will go through the records “one by one,” he said at the press conference, and pursue maximum charges for anyone found to have voted illegally, which includes up to five years in prison and $250,000 in fines. 

SAVE in court

The SAVE program allows local jurisdictions to determine someone’s immigration status for purposes such as applying for government jobs, benefits and driver’s licenses. 

The administration wants states to use the powerful computer system to check the citizenship of people on voter rolls and is battling in court to restore that use of the program after a federal court ruled in June the expansion was unlawful.

Mullin blamed the program’s pause on “activist judges” who don’t want secure elections. 

The SAVE program is distinct from, but shares its acronym with, the SAVE America Act, a bill that proposes to restrict voter access by adding requirements to register and cast ballots, including photo IDs. The bill is stalled in the U.S. Senate and does not include funding for election security infrastructure. 

Democratic officials cry foul

In Mullin’s letter to Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar, which was shared with States Newsroom, Mullin shared “concerning results” of a preliminary review of Nevada’s voter registration data showing there were as many as 15,903 noncitizens registered to vote. 

“I hope that you share in the commitment to ensure that only U.S. citizens participate in our federal elections,” Mullin wrote. “Allowing just one non-citizen to vote cancels the vote of one U.S. citizen.” 

Mullin said his team would help support the state to “take steps to protect Nevada voters and ensure that ineligible voters will not impact upcoming federal elections.”

Aguilar, a Democrat, told States Newsroom in a statement Friday that the department’s estimate is “wildly speculative at best.” The department “hasn’t shared anything that backs it up,” he added.

Aguilar said there are multiple safeguards in place to prevent noncitizens or any other ineligible voters from casting a ballot, and that Nevada runs “some of the safest, most secure and accessible elections in the country.”

“The Administration lacks a fundamental understanding of how elections work,” Aguilar wrote. “They just want to cause chaos and doubt ahead of the midterms.” 

In a statement Friday afternoon, Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt, a Republican, said all evidence shows that noncitizen voting is “extremely rare across the country, including in Pennsylvania.” 

Every resident must take multiple steps to verify their identity before they cast a ballot or register to vote, he said. 

“While the Department has made clear that we cannot share Pennsylvanians’ private, personal information, we will review any information provided by DHS so that we can evaluate the validity of these claims,” Schmidt said. 

California under fire

California has repeatedly come under fire from Trump regarding its elections. In his speech Thursday evening, he cast doubt on the integrity of the state’s recent Los Angeles mayoral and gubernatorial races. 

Secretary of State Shirley Weber described the claims as fallacious and unsubstantiated. 

“Non-citizen voting remains exceedingly rare,” she said. “In California, election officials work every day to maintain accurate voter rolls and ensure that only eligible voters are registered.”

She said her team will carefully review Mullin’s letter to assess the methodology for its claims, and “welcome legitimate best practices that comply with state and federal law while protecting Californians’ personal information.” 

“However, the information provided during the President’s remarks and on the White House website, do not inspire any level of confidence in the methodology used or the conclusions reached,” she added. “If the President is truly committed to election integrity, he must stop undermining confidence in our democracy, making it harder for eligible Americans to vote, and attempting to seize authority that the Constitution clearly reserves for the states.”