Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin says preliminary federal reviews identified more than 250,000 potential noncitizens on voter rolls in California, New Jersey, Nevada and Pennsylvania, though the figures remain disputed and have not been independently verified.
WASHINGTON — Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is escalating a fight with four Democratic-led states over voter roll data, saying federal officials identified more than 250,000 potential noncitizens registered to vote in California, New Jersey, Nevada and Pennsylvania.
“Election security is national security,” Mullin said in a July statement from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. “As President Trump announced last night, DHS has identified over 250,000 potential non-citizens illegally registered to vote in just 4 U.S. states. Only Americans should be electing American leaders.”
Mullin has since sharpened the argument publicly, saying Democratic-run states, including New Jersey, have refused to turn over voter roll information and pointing to the quarter-million figure as evidence that additional scrutiny is needed.
DHS Says More Than 35,000 Potential Matches Are in New Jersey
According to the Department of Homeland Security, its preliminary review produced potential noncitizen registration totals of 190,832 in California, 35,152 in New Jersey, 15,903 in Nevada and 14,576 in Pennsylvania.
Combined, those figures total more than 256,000 potential matches.
For New Jersey, that puts 35,152 voter registrations under the federal government’s scrutiny.
The issue immediately places New Jersey in the center of a broader national battle over election integrity, citizenship verification and access to state voter data. It also makes New Jerseyans wonder if illegal migrants are canceling out their own right to vote.
DHS sent letters to election officials in all four states asking them to work with the federal government to verify the records before action is taken. New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill has public stated that she absolutely refuses to cooperate in the investigation.
Mullin Links Numbers to States’ Refusal to Provide Voter Data
His argument is straightforward: if preliminary federal comparisons are already identifying tens of thousands of potential mismatches, DHS wants access to additional voter data to determine how many records are legitimate and how many require correction.
The administration has also said other states cooperating with federal reviews have produced additional potential noncitizen matches.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin says federal reviews flagged more than 250,000 potential noncitizen voter registrations in four states, including more than 35,000 in New Jersey.
DHS says preliminary reviews flagged more than 250,000 potential noncitizen voter registrations in four states, including 35,152 in New Jersey.