Utah Election Chief Warns of Internal Threats to Midterms

Utah's Lieutenant Governor Deidre Henderson, a Republican, has issued a stark warning that threats to the upcoming midterm elections are originating from within the U.S. government. This stance places her in opposition to President Donald Trump and his allies.

Henderson articulated her concerns in an interview with CBS News's 60 Minutes, stating that the nature of these threats differs significantly from those she has encountered during her nine years overseeing elections in Utah. "In the past two elections that I oversaw as lieutenant governor, the threats were all external," Henderson told CBS News's Leslie Stahl. "Non-state actors, cybersecurity threats and other things." She added, "But now we also have threats coming from within our own government."

Utah, like several other states, has resisted efforts by the Trump administration to access its statewide voter data and to restrict mail-in voting. Utah, a state that voted for Trump by a significant margin in the last presidential election, has Henderson as its election chief.

Henderson recently learned from Justice Department officials that she is under investigation and could face legal consequences related to noncitizen voting in Utah. When asked by Stahl if she felt she was going "toe-to-toe with the president of the United States," Henderson responded, "I think this is an important thing for me to do; holding these guardrails, holding the line. Someone has to."

These remarks come as the Justice Department and President Trump have intensified efforts to combat voter fraud and noncitizen voting, despite evidence suggesting such instances are rare. In Utah, state audits identified only 52 "questionable" voting incidents out of over 2 million votes cast, a figure Henderson described as "two thousandths of one percent."

This is not the first time Henderson has clashed with the Trump administration. Last year, she refused to provide the Justice Department with Utah's voter registration list, joining 28 other states that faced lawsuits from Trump's DOJ for similar refusals. The Justice Department has not yet prevailed in these lawsuits.

Regarding the Justice Department's requests, Henderson explained, "They wanted things that we typically are required by law to keep private." These requests included sensitive data such as voters' social security numbers, full dates of birth, and driver's license numbers. Henderson stated, "We just weren't given very good answers and we were concerned about what they would do with that data."

President Trump has previously taken steps aimed at tightening voter registration and has attempted to federalize mail-in ballots through executive orders. These actions have raised concerns among state leaders who argue they overstep constitutional boundaries.