Mullin Warns States: Cooperate On Voter Roll Checks Or Face Consequences

The Trump administration is escalating its campaign to secure America’s elections, warning state officials that refusing to cooperate with federal voter-roll reviews could jeopardize election-related funding and potentially expose individuals to legal consequences.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced Friday that the Department of Homeland Security is directing states to work with federal officials to identify noncitizens who may be improperly listed on voter-registration rolls ahead of the November 2026 midterm elections.

Speaking at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Mullin said a preliminary federal review identified more than 250,000 suspected noncitizen registrations across California, New Jersey, Nevada and Pennsylvania. DHS subsequently sent letters to election officials in those four states requesting cooperation and responses within two weeks.

The administration has not claimed that all flagged individuals cast ballots. DHS also has not publicly released enough underlying information for states or independent observers to verify the entire figure, meaning each potential match will require further investigation before any voter can lawfully be declared ineligible.

Still, Mullin argued that states have a responsibility to examine credible warnings rather than dismiss them for political reasons.

“We need to make sure that individuals that are legally able to vote are voting,” Mullin said.

“If you’re illegal and attempted to vote, or you tried to vote illegally for someone else, we will find you and we will charge you,” he added.

Federal law already prohibits noncitizens from voting in elections for president, vice president and Congress, subject to limited statutory exceptions. Federal law also provides criminal penalties for knowingly submitting fraudulent voter-registration information or interfering with lawful registration procedures.

Federal Funding Could Be Tied to Cooperation

Mullin said states seeking federal election-security assistance must meet basic requirements involving voter-list maintenance and the protection of election systems.

“If states want the grant funding, to recap, they must secure the election,” Mullin said during the news conference.

The secretary did not identify every grant that could be withheld, but he said federal reimbursement and security funding should not continue flowing to jurisdictions that refuse to cooperate with federal safeguards.

The administration wants states to compare registration records with federal citizenship and immigration information, including data associated with the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program.

SAVE was originally created to help government agencies verify immigration or citizenship status when determining eligibility for public benefits and licenses. Under President Trump, the system was expanded to assist states examining voter eligibility.

Mullin warned that election officials who receive credible evidence of unlawful registrations and deliberately refuse to act could face consequences.

“If the election officials, once we gave them the information they need to secure their elections, and they chose not to, then those individuals can also be held accountable by fines, by penalties, and even, depending on how far it goes, prison time,” Mullin said.

That warning does not mean an official could be imprisoned merely for disagreeing with DHS. Any prosecution would require an applicable criminal statute, evidence of knowing misconduct and the protections of due process.

But the broader message from the administration is unmistakable: State officials cannot knowingly disregard illegal voting or fraudulent registrations while continuing to demand federal money and public trust.

Trump Orders New Election-Infrastructure Plan

Mullin also announced that President Donald Trump directed DHS to produce an updated national election-infrastructure security plan within 30 days.

The administration is focusing not only on voter eligibility but also on voting-machine security, foreign access to election systems, early voting and the handling of ballots counted after Election Day. Mullin said the objective is to prevent future interference and restore confidence before Americans vote in the midterms.

“We’re not trying to change the outcome,” Mullin said.

“We’re trying to make sure that American people can trust our voting system.”

That distinction is crucial. Election-security reforms should not be judged according to which party may gain an advantage. The proper standard is whether the rules protect eligible citizens, prevent illegal participation and allow the public to verify that every lawful vote is counted accurately.

Requiring clean voter rolls does not disenfranchise legitimate voters. Properly administered, it protects them from having their votes diluted by registrations or ballots that should never have entered the system.

Justice Department Expands Voter-Roll Litigation

The DHS initiative follows a nationwide Justice Department effort to obtain statewide voter-registration records and examine whether election officials are complying with the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act.

The Justice Department has sued numerous states that refused to produce requested voter-roll information. Attorney General Pamela Bondi has argued that accurate voter lists are essential to transparent and secure elections, although several federal judges have rejected particular data demands made by the administration.

The legal setbacks demonstrate why Congress remains central to Trump’s election-integrity agenda.

The administration continues pressing Republicans to pass the SAVE America Act, which would establish documentary proof-of-citizenship requirements for federal voter registration and provide clearer national standards for voter-list maintenance.

Without legislation, executive agencies must operate within existing statutory authority, leaving many reforms vulnerable to lawsuits and conflicting judicial decisions.

Federal Judge Restricted Expanded SAVE System

The latest initiative also faces a significant legal obstacle involving the SAVE database itself.

In June, U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan blocked major parts of the Trump administration’s expanded system. The court found that the federal government improperly combined citizenship information with Social Security records and that the modified database could produce inaccurate results when used to determine voter eligibility.

The ruling did not establish that voter-roll verification is inherently unlawful. It held that the administration’s specific modifications and data-sharing procedures violated federal privacy and administrative requirements.

Voting-rights groups have warned that outdated immigration records can mistakenly identify recently naturalized citizens as noncitizens. Such errors are a legitimate concern and must be corrected before anyone is removed from a voter list.

But potential database errors are an argument for careful verification, notice and appeal procedures—not for abandoning voter-roll maintenance entirely.

A responsible system can protect both priorities: preventing noncitizens from participating in federal elections while ensuring that every qualified American citizen remains registered.

States Challenge Administration’s Findings

Officials in the four named states have disputed DHS’s preliminary figures.

Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar said the department had not provided evidence supporting its estimate for Nevada. Other Democratic officials similarly questioned how DHS reached the nationwide total, noting that database matches can reflect outdated or incomplete information rather than confirmed illegal registrations.

Those objections deserve a transparent response from the administration. DHS should provide states with enough information to review every flagged record, correct false matches and refer genuine violations for investigation.

At the same time, partisan hostility toward Trump cannot become an excuse for refusing to inspect credible evidence.

The public deserves more than assurances that voter fraud is rare. Americans deserve a system capable of identifying unlawful registrations, prosecuting deliberate violations and demonstrating that voter lists are accurate before ballots are issued.

Trump’s latest move places the burden squarely on state officials: cooperate with lawful election-security reviews, protect eligible voters and explain any refusal to examine potential irregularities.

With control of Congress at stake in November, transparency cannot wait until after Election Day.