The Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security has acknowledged that statistics regarding noncitizens on voter rolls, which were promoted in a primetime presidential address, contained inflated figures. The announcement had claimed to identify more than 250,000 noncitizens on voter rolls across Nevada and three other states.
In a recorded call earlier this month between DHS officials and Nevada state election authorities, a DHS representative initially stated the agency had identified close to 16,000 noncitizens on Nevada’s voter list. However, during the same meeting, a DHS official characterized this figure as “the ceiling” and noted that each voter would require manual review. Subsequently, DHS provided Nevada with a list containing only 185 voter identification numbers representing individuals the agency claimed it was confident were noncitizens. The agency indicated it still had over 14,000 additional Nevada voters that required further examination.
State election officials have requested detailed information about the matching process and data points used to identify the 185 voters, but DHS has declined to provide this information. Nevada’s deputy secretary of state emphasized the importance of thorough vetting to avoid mistakenly removing eligible citizens from voter rolls. Similar concerns were raised by California officials, who stated that eligible voters could face disenfranchisement through erroneous removal based on the federal government’s review process. Pennsylvania officials also reported having comparable interactions with DHS, though they have not yet received a specific list of potentially ineligible voters from the federal government.
Federal officials explained their methodology involves cross-referencing voter names, dates of birth, addresses, and phone numbers from state voter files with records from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. DHS declined to confirm why the initially publicized figures differed substantially from the smaller verified list provided to states. A DHS official stated the agency is deploying additional staff resources to conduct manual reviews of state voter rolls. The Homeland Security Secretary previously indicated the department would release similar analyses during early voting and vote counting periods.
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