Mullin says DHS found 250,000 noncitizens registered to vote in four states

Pennsylvania Republican says evidence shows noncitizen voting extremely rare

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said Friday that the Department of Homeland Security identified 250,000 noncitizens registered to vote in California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Nevada.

“This isn’t about rehashing the 2020 election,” Mullin told reporters at the Indian Treaty Room of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. “This is just exposing what took place, and to make sure it never happens again.”

David Becker, executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation and Research, said the administration has not been “transparent about the methodology” used to reach that number.

Mullin also said DHS found 28,000 noncitizens on voter rolls in 23 red states that have “proactively” worked with the administration on the SAVE program, a DHS tool that checks citizenship status. Becker said the figure sounded plausible but amounts to 0.04% of the 68 million eligible voters in those states.

“One thing that I love about numbers, and I love about facts is they don’t lie,” Mullin said. “This isn’t something that I’m trying to tell you to spin a narrative. This is what is going on.”

Pennsylvania’s Republican Secretary of State Al Schmidt responded to the administration’s claims, saying that voters in the Keystone State “must take steps to verify their identity before they cast a ballot, including providing proper identification every time they register to vote, vote by mail, or vote at a new polling place.”

“All evidence has shown that noncitizen voting is extremely rare across the country, including in Pennsylvania,” Schmidt said.

Mullin repeated Trump’s assertion that voting machines are unsafe and insecure, saying “we know for sure that our foreign adversaries, not our allies, foreign adversaries have parts that are vital pieces in our voting machines.” Election officials and cybersecurity experts have routinely said the machines are not connected to the internet and undergo rigorous testing before each election.

The secretary appeared to reference CIA reporting of “a specific plot by the Maduro regime” in Venezuela to rig its own elections using Smartmatic voting technology. According to the CIA analysis, the vulnerability did not extend to the United States. Claims that Venezuela controls electronic voting systems worldwide are part of a long-running conspiracy theory and are not supported by credible evidence.

Mullin said without evidence that rivals can “change voter registration and your vote,” adding, “There’s not a question. It’s not even for debate.”