Whistleblower says DHS voter probe might violate state laws, wrongly target US citizens

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employees were told to pose as voters while searching for noncitizens on state voter rolls, according to a whistleblower report released Monday.

Employees were given sensitive information for people flagged as potential “unlawful voters” and instructed to search state voter bases, likely violating state law, according to the whistleblower.

The anonymous whistleblower report was released Monday by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Alex Padilla (Calif.), the top Democrat on the Senate committee overseeing federal elections.

The senators received the 30-page disclosure last week, and they said it revealed “serious allegations of illegal and inappropriate activities” within DHS’s Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate.

It features information centering on a DHS effort called the “Unlawful Voter Initiative,” which uses federal employees to probe those suspected of illegally voting.

Some states restrict access to individual voter records. In Virginia, for example, users must certify that they are the voter or have the voter’s permission to access the information. The site warns that accessing another voter’s record is unlawful.

The whistleblower alleged employees were told to conduct the searches despite concerns that they could be violating state law, and they were assured individuals would not be held liable, possibly indicating that the agency was “aware that the activity may be illegal.”

Employees were also given less than two hours of training before beginning the work and were expected to review 40 people each day, giving them about 12 minutes per person.

The initiative was first reported by The New York Times earlier this month.

The disclosure warned that U.S. citizens and lawful residents could be wrongly flagged because of inaccurate or incomplete data.

Padilla and Schumer said the Trump administration is using the probe to interfere with upcoming elections and to prove President Trump’s long-held false claims of election interference.

“The Department of Homeland Security is sending hundreds of officers who should be focused on our security on a wild goose chase to prove Trump’s long-debunked election conspiracy theories — and DHS is telling officers to lie to do it,” Schumer said in a statement to Axios.

“This new DHS initiative is nothing more than an unlawful order by the government to silence the voices of Americans,” he added. “Trump may try to steal this election, but we will make sure he can never be successful.”