The Trump administration charged 236 people with voting-fraud-related offenses despite claims that fraud is widespread. Federal agents checked many records, but the results fell short of earlier warnings. David Becker said, "They're trying to manufacture evidence and they're failing." This effort used vast resources but showed very little illegal voting.
Just 236 people have been charged with voting-fraud-related offenses by the Trump administration, despite its unsubstantiated claims that fraud is widespread.
The Department of Homeland Security has mounted an extraordinary campaign to hunt for illegal voters, devoting hundreds of federal agents to the task of poring over tens of thousands of voter records and knocking on the doors of people suspected of being noncitizens who unlawfully cast ballots.
But the crusade has so far resulted in the Trump administration's charging only about 236 people with voting-fraud-related offenses across the country since the president took office, according to the Justice Department. That includes some noncitizens accused of registering to vote but not actually casting ballots.
The figure is a minuscule share of the more than 158 million ballots cast in the 2024 general election, and falls far short of the figures cited in July by Markwayne Mullin, the homeland security secretary, who claimed without evidence that more than 250,000 potential noncitizens were registered to vote in just four states alone.
The small number of charges has further undermined President Trump's specious claims that voting by noncitizens is pervasive and tilting elections for Democrats, and raises questions about why the Homeland Security Department has dedicated vast resources to the effort ahead of the midterm election.
"This is about delegitimizing an election that they're very worried about," said David Becker, a former voting rights lawyer for the Justice Department who runs the Center for Election Innovation and Research, a nonpartisan group that works to support election officials. "They're trying to manufacture evidence and they're failing."
The administration's campaign to scrutinize noncitizen voters has involved a close partnership between the Homeland Security Department and the Justice Department, which has led efforts to criminally charge noncitizens with illegal voting. The Homeland Security Department's investigatory work has also been core to recent attempts by the Justice Department to intervene in the election.
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