Democrats and state elections officials are bracing for the possibility that Trump will use the speech to advance his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen amid reports the White House is weighing the declassification of intelligence on vulnerabilities in U.S. voting infrastructure, and Chinese influence peddling in 2020.
The draft press release states that “reviews of the four states’ records” found 190,832 noncitizens registered in California; 35,152 in New Jersey; 15,903 in Nevada; and 14,576 in Pennsylvania. It does not indicate that DHS found evidence that non-citizens cast ballots or explain how it reached a number that appears to be higher than previous reviews have found.
The draft press release makes reference to letters Mullin plans to send to each of the four states. Those letters will ask the top elections officials in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California and Nevada to “respond within two weeks and confirm their intentions to collaborate with DHS in order to ensure free, fair and accurate elections.”
Spokespeople for the secretaries of state for Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and California — the top election officials in each state — did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Spokespeople for the White House and DHS also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It is illegal for non-citizens to vote in U.S. elections, and cases in which non-citizens vote are extremely rare. Many suspected non-citizens identified on state voter rolls have turned out to be false-positives.
The preliminary finding from DHS and potential outreach to the states also comes amid a push by Trump to assert greater federal control over elections.
