Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon spoke on Thursday about the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) efforts to enforce voting standards across the United States.
Speaking to Newsmax, Dhillon said the DOJ has reached out to individual states to offer assistance in identifying issues and cleaning up voter rolls, including removing ineligible voters.
The Trump administration has led a strong effort to promote uniformity and security in voter rolls throughout the U.S. After requesting access to voter roll data, the DOJ has sued more than two dozen states to obtain it.
“We’re in litigation with 30 states,” Dhillon said. “We’ve offered to help all the states clean up their voter rolls. About a third of the states did voluntarily comply with us, and we’re helping them get rid of dead people on the voter rolls, investigate potential non-citizens on the voter rolls, and really give confidence to the voters of those states.”
For the states that have not complied, Dhillon pointed out that the DOJ was prepared to use its authority to enforce uniform standards and would explore further action. Dhillon said DOJ actions could include criminal penalties for state actors who refuse to comply with voting standards and laws.
“Why are two-thirds of the states not doing it? I don’t know but my job is to enforce all of the federal rules relating to voting,” Dhillon said. “And those laws include criminal penalties, not only for the people who falsely represent their citizenship to register to vote, or vote illegally, but also election officials who knowingly allow or conspire with people to vote when they have no legal right to do so, including non-citizens.”
Dhillon emphasized the importance of election security and the need for voter confidence.
“This is not a fictional issue,” Dhillon said. “We at the DOJ have prosecuted numerous people over the last year and a half who have voted illegally…We just want to put a stop to it so all Americans can feel confident that their vote isn’t being cancelled out.”
