Full Breakdown
DHS Claims of Tens of Thousands of Noncitizens on Voter Rolls Spur State Pushback
7/31/2026, 2:15:46 AM
Core Event
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), led by Secretary Markwayne Mullin, sent letters to election officials in Pennsylvania, Nevada, California and New Jersey asserting that a “preliminary review” of publicly available registration records identified 14,576 potential noncitizens in Pennsylvania, more than 8,500 in Nevada, and a combined total of over 250,000 noncitizens across the four states. The letters warned that officials who failed to cooperate could face fines, penalties or imprisonment.
Background & Context
The DHS outreach followed President Donald Trump’s primetime address in early July 2026, in which he repeated unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud. The agency’s analysis relied on the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program, which a federal judge recently blocked after finding accuracy problems. Prior audits of the Social Security Administration’s data, which feeds SAVE, have documented errors that falsely flagged eligible voters as noncitizens.
Data & Statistics
- Pennsylvania: 14,576 potential noncitizen registrations.
- Nevada: 8,500 matches and an estimate of 15,903 noncitizens on the rolls.
- Combined claim: 250,000 noncitizens across the four states.
- New Jersey: A Motor Vehicle Commission error placed ?6,600 self-identified noncitizens on voter rolls; ?400 of those individuals cast ballots between 2023 and 2024, far below DHS’s implied figure of 35,000.
No state has provided DHS with the unredacted voter files required for verification, citing laws that prohibit sharing Social Security numbers and other personal identifiers with federal agencies.
Official Statements & Responses
- Al Schmidt, Pennsylvania Secretary of State, wrote to Mullin demanding a detailed methodology, data sources and the date of any voter-record extraction before any action is taken.
- Shirley Weber, California Secretary of State, highlighted that California law criminalizes the sharing of voter data with the federal government and asked whether artificial-intelligence techniques were used in DHS’s analysis.
- Mikie Sherrill, Governor of New Jersey, disclosed the Motor Vehicle Commission error and refused to provide the identified registrants to DHS, noting that the Justice Department would pursue the information “through all legal means.”
- Markwayne Mullin warned that officials who do not “secure their elections” could face criminal penalties, and set a two-week deadline for state responses.
Conflicting Reports & Gaps
- DHS’s aggregate figure of 250,000 noncitizens contrasts sharply with the concrete numbers disclosed by individual states (e.g., New Jersey’s ?6,600).
- DHS has not disclosed the specific databases, matching algorithms or AI tools used, nor provided the underlying voter lists, leaving the methodology “unidentified” according to the states’ letters.
- A federal judge’s recent injunction against the SAVE program underscores the lack of a reliable data source for the claims.
Verbatim Quotes
- “As you know, past analyses of voter lists have relied on faulty methodologies that can lead to inaccurate results and false claims about the citizenship status of eligible voters,” — Al Schmidt
- “The American public deserves transparency in how their private information is being used at the federal level,” — Cisco Aguilar, Nevada Secretary of State
What’s Next
Secretary Mullin’s letters gave states a two-week window to supply the requested methodology and data. No public response from DHS has been recorded as of the latest reporting. States have indicated they will continue to protect voter-registration data under state law while evaluating any further federal requests.
