Trump, his allies want to sow distrust about security in the elections before the midterms

WASHINGTON – President Trump and his allies intensified the attack on the US election on Friday, after the president's first attempts to convince the American people that the country's voting systems are flawed, and threatened to punish California and other Democratic states that refuse the administration's demands for voter data.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has threatened local election officials with fines and jail time if they don't turn over ballots to federal officials seeking to crack down on illegal voting aimed at non-citizens.

“We tried,” Gov. Californian Gavin Newsom wrote in X in response to Mullin's threats. He added that “California has free, fair, and secure elections” and that the state will “fight for it.”

The administration's threats – made less than four months before the November midterm elections – are a continuation of an aggressive campaign led by Trump to use the federal government to try to fix the state's voting systems and sow public distrust in elections.

The administration has tried for months to compel Democratic-led states to hand over sensitive voter information to the federal government, but efforts have been fought in the courts, in part because of concerns about privacy laws. Courts have also affirmed in numerous cases that the Constitution gives the states — not the federal government — primary authority over elections.

On Friday, Mullin said his agency found “about 190,832 potential citizens registered to vote in California, and more in three other Democratic-led states. He said Homeland Security arrived at those numbers by looking at public voting records in four states.”

He vowed to withhold federal election security grants from states until they agree to the administration's demands, including that their voter registration lists be “defeated” and their election security plans reviewed.

“If these states want funding and want money back to run elections, they're going to have to use security measures,” Mullin said at a press conference. “We have to make sure that people who can legally vote do vote.”

Newsom said the state had “no idea” where that claim came from. The administration has not made its approach public, and the system Mullin's department has used to screen noncitizens in the past has improperly flagged some residents as noncitizens. Reviews of past elections have found that non-citizen voting is rare.

“There are many reasons to be suspicious of the administration's claims,” ​​said Brendan Fisher, director of strategic investigations at the Campaign Legal Center, “and every reason for voters to trust our polls.”

Mullin's comments come a day after Trump made a series of comments in the past about vulnerabilities in the election process, with allegations inconsistent with the evidence he has provided. The White House released a series of unclassified documents that failed to show that any US election was affected by fraud or foreign interference.

The White House joined this strategy on Friday morning, sending the heads of the organizations to continue to increase the perception of the vulnerability of the election, even if the facts show that most of his claims were exaggerated and were known before, investigated or refuted.

“SAVE OUR ELECTIONS,” the White House told X.

Trump also used his speech to pressure Congress to pass legislation that would tighten voting restrictions and make it harder for millions to register to vote and vote. While hard-line Republicans applauded him, others in the party dismissed his request.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said Friday he doesn't understand why Trump is focusing on the past election when Republicans should be focusing on the next.

“I think historically the terms of the ruling party are really tough,” Cornyn said. “So, yes, I'm concerned about it. We have to talk about the things going forward that our people are most concerned about.”

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said the nation's election systems are safe, and while he thinks election officials need to be “vigilant,” he said he's more concerned about economic issues ahead of the midterms.

Discussing the law before the speech on Thursday, Sen. Thom Tillis (RN.C.) said it would be “impossible” to make changes to the nation's voting laws early in the midterms.

“The only thing that will happen is to undermine the integrity of our elections right now,” Tillis said on the Senate floor.

David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, called Mullin's threats “laughable.”

“There's not a lot of federal grant money that's been allocated, so this threat has no teeth in any province. None of them are expecting any significant election funds,” said Becker.

Mullin told reporters Friday that the federal government plans to use public records requests to try to obtain voter registration information to investigate whether non-citizens have voted. Any member of the public can make a request for public records; this move shows that the government has few options left to force the state to respond to voter information.

But Mullin appeared to acknowledge the limitations, saying: “I can't force the states.” He later threatened to impose fines, penalties or criminal charges on state election officials who did not comply with the government's request.

If their behavior is not criminal, Mullin said he will ensure that state and county officials — who do not work for the federal government — “will never work for the federal government again.”

More than a dozen courts have ruled against the Justice Department's unusual demand for federal voting records. The federal government does not have a right to access the information under federal law, Becker said.

He said previous federal investigations into non-citizen voting found that most of the people flagged against the DHS database were either citizens or non-citizens who had never registered to vote.

The Trump administration used a database from the immigration enforcement system to flag potential non-citizen voters, but election officials found that method did not identify some voters. Even if citizens were mistakenly included in the count, the number of potentially ineligible voters was very low – in Texas, 0.0001% of voters.

Data shows that non-citizen voting is rare. A Brennan Center for Justice study of the 2016 election found that officials referred about 30 cases of suspected noncitizen voting for investigation or prosecution. A 2024 review by the American Immigration Council of the right-wing Heritage Foundation's website revealed 68 cases of non-citizen voting since the 1980s.

Although Trump's speech drew warnings from his critics that he may be laying the groundwork for further meddling or tightening of election restrictions, experts say he is running out of jobs.

Becker predicted that Trump would not actually try to cancel the election or send officials to the polls and that the courts would block the president if he declared a national emergency to control the election.

“But I think there are people in power, including the president himself, who would like us all to think that this is possible,” he said.

Fisher said Trump may be trying to lay the groundwork to challenge the midterm results if he doesn't like the result, but said his ability to do so is limited.

“There are safeguards and laws in place to protect the freedom to vote,” Fisher said, “and voters should keep quiet and continue to participate in our democracy.”