Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Friday reiterated Donald Trump's baseless claims about the 2020 election, citing Department of Homeland Security data that election experts say lacks transparent methodology. During a press conference at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Mullin defended Trump's primetime speech from the previous day, which was widely criticized for lacking new evidence.
Mullin defends Trump's unsubstantiated claims
“This isn’t about rehashing the 2020 election. This is just exposing what took place, and to make sure it never happens again,” Mullin said. He claimed the DHS identified 250,000 noncitizens registered to vote in California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Nevada. However, David Becker, executive director of the non-partisan Center for Election Innovation and Research, said the administration has not been “transparent about the methodology” in reaching that number.
State officials push back
On Thursday, several state officials responded to the administration's claims. Al Schmidt, Pennsylvania's Republican secretary of state, said voters in the Keystone state “must take steps to verify their identity before they cast a ballot, including providing proper identification every time they register to vote, vote by mail, or vote at a new polling place.” He added: “All evidence has shown that noncitizen voting is extremely rare across the country, including in Pennsylvania.”
Save program data questioned
Mullin also claimed that 28,000 noncitizens had been identified on the voter rolls of 23 red states that have worked with the administration on the Save program, a DHS tool to verify citizenship. Becker noted this number is plausible but represents only 0.04% of the 68 million eligible voters in those states. “One thing that I love about numbers, and I love about facts is they don’t lie,” Mullin told reporters. “This isn’t something that I’m trying to tell you to spin a narrative. This is what is going on, and what we are saying is that every state should partner with us to work to secure this.”
Conspiracy theories on voting machines
Mullin repeated Trump's baseless conspiracy theories about voting machines being unsafe and insecure, despite election officials and cybersecurity experts stressing that these machines are not connected to the internet and undergo rigorous testing. “We know for sure that our foreign adversaries, not our allies, foreign adversaries have parts that are vital pieces in our voting machines,” Mullin said, echoing Trump's claims about a CIA report on a plot by Venezuela's Maduro regime to rig elections. However, the CIA analysis found the vulnerability involved voting technology used in Venezuela by Smartmatic and did not extend to the US. Claims that Venezuela controls electronic voting systems worldwide are part of a long-running conspiracy theory with no credible evidence.
Unfounded allegations of vote manipulation
On Friday, Mullin said without evidence that rivals can “change voter registration and your vote.” “There’s not a question. It’s not even for debate,” he asserted.
