State officials are pushing back against the Department of Homeland Security’s claims that the voter rolls included tens of thousands of non-citizens and are demanding an explanation from the department about how it reached its conclusion.
Ahead of President Donald Trump’s prime-time White House speech earlier this month alleging sweeping claims of voter fraud, Homeland Security Secretary Mark Wayne Mullin sent a letter to officials in Nevada, Pennsylvania, California and New Jersey, saying he believed there were more than 250,000 non-citizens total on the voter rolls in the four states. At a press conference the day after Trump’s speech, Marin threatened officials with possible prison terms if they did not “secure the election.”
Ahead of Mullin’s requested two-week response deadline, officials from California, Nevada and Pennsylvania sent back letters asking where DHS got the data. All three states have refused to share private state voter roll data, which includes personally identifying information such as Social Security numbers.
“Americans have a right to transparency about how their personal information is 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 collecting people’s personal information, but they don’t explain how they’re collecting it, and it may not be accurate. And classifying someone as incapable of exercising their fundamental constitutional rights causes real harm,” Aguilar added.
In a separate letter to Marin dated Wednesday, Aguilar and Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmitt, a Republican, questioned how the federal government reached its conclusions without the unredacted voter rolls that the Justice Department is suing each state to obtain.
“How did your department match Social Security numbers to Nevada registrants, and if not the voter information provided, what data sources did you use,” Secretary Aguilar said in the letter.
“As you know, previous voter list analyzes rely on flawed methodologies that can lead to inaccurate results and false claims about voters’ citizenship status,” Schmidt wrote. “Please provide documentation explaining your methodology for identifying trusted data sources.”
DHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the new response from state officials.
California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, a Democrat, asked Mullin in a July 23 letter to share information on those who provided voters’ personal data to the federal government because it is a crime under state law.
“Because my office does not share statewide voter registration lists with DHS or any other federal agency or employee, I have serious doubts about the authenticity of your data and the accuracy of your claims. In fact, state law prohibits sharing sensitive voter information, including Social Security numbers, with anyone, including the federal government,” Weber wrote.
Weber asked for details of the federal government’s analysis, including data sources and whether artificial intelligence was used.
Voting by noncitizens is illegal and rare. In some cases, noncitizens are added to states’ voter rolls, but historically, few have attempted to vote.
Days after President Trump’s speech, Mikie Sherrill, governor of New Jersey, the fourth state appointed by the Trump administration, announced that officials had discovered an error in the Motor Vehicle Commission that resulted in about 6,600 self-proclaimed noncitizens being registered to vote, and about 400 voting between 2023 and 2024. DHS claimed New Jersey found 35,000 noncitizens on its voter rolls.
The Trump administration then asked New Jersey to submit detailed information about its registrants, but Sherrill said in the letter that the state would not share that information with the federal government.
“The Department of Justice will obtain this information through all legal means!” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon responded in a post to X on Tuesday.
Sherrill’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
