DHS Secretary Mullin threatens states with funding cuts, investigations, and prison time over election security compliance

Jul 17, 2026

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has threatened state election officials with funding cuts, investigations, and prison time if they do not comply with federal demands to audit voter rolls. Mullin claimed DHS identified 250,000 registered noncitizens across four states, though experts emphasize noncitizen voting is extremely rare. State officials in Pennsylvania and Nevada have rejected the demands, pointing to existing safeguards and 15 consecutive federal court defeats on the matter.

Mullin threatens uncooperative states

▪Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced plans to withhold federal grant money from states that do not comply with demands to use the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements database.
▪Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin threatened state election officials with funding cuts, investigations, and prison time if they refuse to cooperate with federal election security demands.

Voter machine hacking claims

▪Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin asserted that foreign adversaries could hack voting machines to manually change votes, raising the specter of compromised systems.
▪U.S. intelligence agencies and election officials state that voting machines are not connected to the internet, are backed up by paper ballots, and have never had votes manually changed by hackers.

Noncitizen voter registration allegations

▪Independent studies and election experts state that noncitizen voting is extremely rare, with the Brennan Center finding only 30 instances out of 23.5 million votes in 2016.
▪The Department of Homeland Security claimed a preliminary review found up to 250,000 noncitizens registered to vote across California, Nevada, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

Deceased voters on rolls

▪Election officials perform regular list maintenance to update voter rolls, though deceased individuals may temporarily remain on rolls because the systems are designed primarily for registration rather than immediate removal.
▪Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin claimed that approximately 400,000 deceased voters remain on state voter rolls.

State officials refuse cooperation

▪Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt dismissed sharing private voter information with the Department of Homeland Security, stating that Pennsylvania voters must verify their identity before casting ballots.
▪Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar stated that Nevada has numerous safeguards to prevent ineligible voting and accused the Trump administration of attempting to cause chaos and doubt.

Federal court losses

▪A federal judge blocked the Trump administration's overhauled Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements database over concerns regarding voter privacy and the potential for wrongful purges of eligible voters.
▪The federal government has lost 15 consecutive court battles attempting to legally force access to sensitive state voter rolls.