The Department of Homeland Security has opened multiple national security investigations into non-citizen voter registration, revealing that a review of public data files from just four states uncovered more than 250,000 ineligible registrants.
Investigation and Findings
The findings, detailed in a July 2026 agency report, come amid expanding federal reviews of statewide voter registration databases. Election officials in California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Nevada—none of which currently utilize the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, system for these files—have been notified of the data matches, according to the DHS.
Federal officials stated that the investigation is expanding to additional states. DHS is also partnering with the Department of Justice to review voter files under the enforcement authorities of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 and the Help America Vote Act of 2002.
Voter Registration and Security
In contrast to the four states, 25 other states have actively utilized the SAVE system to cross-reference their registration lists. According to federal data current through June 22, 2026, those 25 states processed more than 68 million registration records. The screenings successfully flagged over 400,000 deceased individuals and identified more than 28,000 non-citizens who had registered to vote.
However, the report notes that recent updates to the USCIS verification service have faced legal hurdles. A ruling by federal Judge Sparkle Sooknanan suspended several of the enhanced features of the SAVE system, a decision the federal government is currently appealing.
Beyond citizenship verification, the federal assessment highlights severe and ongoing technical vulnerabilities within statewide voter databases. Recently declassified records cited in the report revealed that Chinese state-sponsored hackers successfully breached multiple state voter registration systems prior to the 2020 presidential election.
Intelligence community and law enforcement data from the past decade show that foreign cyber actors have targeted voter networks in all 50 states, securing confirmed access in at least 20 of them.
Recommendations and Next Steps
To counter these infrastructure threats, federal authorities are urging state and local jurisdictions to implement stricter defensive protocols. Recommended measures include enforcing multifactor authentication, utilizing .gov domains, isolating election networks from standard business systems, and maintaining encrypted database backups completely offline to protect against ransomware.
For local polling stations, the agency advises generating physical paper pollbooks as a primary backup to minimize regular Election Day disruptions if electronic systems fail.
Original reporting: Tampa Free Press — read the source article.
