Election Officials Rebuke Trump Administration's Baseless Claims of Non-Citizen Voting
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State election officials from 37 states have forcefully rejected President Trump and the Department of Homeland Security's fearmongering over so-called non-citizen voting, pointing out the lack of credible evidence and questioning the administration’s motives ahead of the 2024 midterms.
State election officials convened in Boston for a professional conference, only to be confronted by President Donald Trump’s latest attempt to undermine public trust in American democracy. Trump claimed his administration had uncovered 'shocking vulnerabilities' in the nation’s election infrastructure, but in interviews, more than a dozen officials from both parties dismissed his address as lacking any new evidence, with many labeling the data as outdated or grossly inflated. > 'It was old. I’ve already seen this stuff. It wasn’t new to me. We already had most of this information,' said a Republican official who requested anonymity, highlighting the bipartisan skepticism toward the administration’s narrative.
The administration’s presentation cited hundreds of thousands of non-citizens on voter rolls in states like Pennsylvania, Nevada, California, and New Jersey—conveniently targeting Democratic strongholds. Officials in these states demanded transparency on how the Department of Homeland Security concocted these figures. The DHS’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database, notorious for overstating non-citizen registrations, was used for the review, and even DHS admits that states must independently verify any matches.
North Carolina election officials refused to blindly accept the 1,599 non-citizens flagged by DHS, opting for their own verification process. > 'There’s nothing we accept at face value and just start removing folks from the voter rolls,' said Sam Hayes, executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, underscoring the commitment to due process. Georgia officials revealed that of the 2,549 registrants flagged, only about 20 had ever voted in the state, further exposing the administration’s exaggerations. New Jersey’s governor explained that 6,600 non-citizen entries were the result of a software error at the state’s motor-vehicle agency, not evidence of fraud.
In a chilling escalation, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin threatened officials who do not comply with the administration’s demands with fines or criminal prosecution. Some officials voiced concern over these authoritarian tactics, but most remained steadfast in their commitment to fair elections. > 'It’s extremely concerning when they talk like that, and we have no idea what they’re going to do,' said an unnamed GOP election official, reflecting widespread alarm.
Democratic officials condemned Trump’s remarks as yet another attack on the right to vote and the integrity of the process, while even many Republican election administrators, despite publicly supporting accurate voter rolls, privately questioned the administration’s dubious methodology.