WASHINGTON, July 17 (Reuters) – U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin asked election officials in four states to check voter rolls for people who are not U.S. citizens, a day after President Donald Trump renewed unsubstantiated claims of past election interference.
In a statement on Friday following Trump’s prime-time address on election security, Mullin said he sent a letter to secretaries of state in California, New Jersey, Nevada and Pennsylvania citing preliminary reviews of the states’ records.
DHS cited potential violations in each state, but offered no evidence to corroborate its tallies in the statement.
Mullin asked the secretaries of state to respond within two weeks and confirm that they would work with DHS on election security, the statement said.
Trump, a Republican, escalated his effort to make election security a central issue in November’s midterm elections on Thursday evening, asserting that China interfered in the 2020 presidential campaign despite a U.S. intelligence assessment that found no evidence to support that claim.
Republicans are facing the prospect of losing one or both chambers of Congress in November with Trump’s approval rating weighed down by the unpopular Iran war and high energy prices.
Trump has spent years raising doubts about electoral outcomes, falsely asserting that his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden was rigged. He has also advanced other false claims, including that mail-in balloting is rife with fraud, voting machines are untrustworthy and non-citizen voting is widespread.
Voter fraud is rare in the United States, experts say. Numerous courts and vote recounts found no evidence of large-scale fraud in the 2020 election.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; editing by Michelle Nichols )