Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced Friday that states not adhering to the Trump administration's election-security requirements risk losing federal funding. Mullin also warned that election officials who fail to act on information provided by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) could face fines, penalties, or imprisonment.
Mullin made these remarks at a press conference following President Donald Trump's address on election integrity. Trump had announced the declassification of intelligence he claimed revealed "shocking vulnerabilities" concerning hacking, exploitation, and foreign interference in elections.
"If the election officials, once we gave them the information they need to secure their elections and they chose not to, then those individuals can also be held accountable by fines, by penalties, and even depending on how far it goes, prison time," Mullin stated.
He noted that 23 states are currently participating in DHS's expanded SAVE program, which enables election officials to cross-reference voter records with federal immigration data. Mullin indicated that CISA would release an updated election-infrastructure plan within 30 days.
Mullin urged all states to join the DHS election security program, emphasizing its role in identifying potentially ineligible registrations by comparing voter rolls against federal immigration and other databases. He highlighted that DHS identified approximately 250,000 voter-registration records in California, New Jersey, Nevada, and Pennsylvania that the department believes belong to noncitizens.
"Every state that's not participating with us should be asked the hard question why not? What are you afraid of? If they're not willing to do it ... it should raise serious questions. It's not that hard. This isn't a partisan issue," Mullin said, questioning the motives of states not participating.
DHS has established election-security conditions for recipients of FEMA's Homeland Security Grant Program. Mullin also indicated he was collaborating with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on security requirements.
During the press conference, Mullin advocated for the passage of the SAVE America Act, a bill that includes provisions requiring documentary proof of citizenship for federal voter registration and photo identification at polling places. "I think the Save Act should be passed tomorrow. I think it should have already been passed," Mullin said.
However, Senate Majority Leader John Thune has expressed skepticism about the bill's prospects, citing that Republicans do not currently have the 60 votes required to overcome a potential Democratic filibuster.