States push DHS to explain its noncitizen voter claims

Election officials are questioning how the Trump administration arrived at its conclusion that hundreds of thousands of noncitizens appeared on voter rolls across four states.

State officials are pushing back on the Department of Homeland Security’s claims that it found tens of thousands of noncitizens on their voter rolls, asking the department to explain how it arrived at its conclusion.

Ahead of President Donald Trump’s primetime speech from the White House earlier this month in which he made sweeping claims of voter fraud, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin wrote to officials in Nevada, Pennsylvania, California and New Jersey, saying he believed the four states had more than 250,000 noncitizens on the voter rolls combined. During a news conference the day after Trump’s speech, Mullin threatened officials with potential prison time if they do not “secure their elections.”

Ahead of Mullin’s requested two-week deadline for response, officials in California, Nevada and Pennsylvania sent back letters questioning where DHS got its data. All three states have declined to share private state voter roll data that includes personal identifying information like Social Security numbers.

“The American public deserves transparency in how their private information is being used at the federal level,” Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar, a Democrat, said in an interview Thursday. “I don’t believe the federal government is being honest with the American people.”

“They’re gathering private information about citizens, but they’re not explaining how they’re doing it, and it may not be accurate. And to classify somebody as not able to exercise their constitutional fundamental rights is a real harm,” Aguilar added.