We're learning more details about steps the administration plans to take before and after the upcoming midterm elections.
This comes a day after President Trump addressed the nation and claimed, without evidence, that previously classified documents showed earlier elections had been influenced by foreign actors, including China.
Now, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the agency will be going through state databases to review any cases of noncitizens voting or individuals voting under the name of a deceased person.
Mullin said there would be consequences, including potential fines, for anyone found to be voting improperly.
"We will be proactively looking at early voting. And then after — post election — we will continue to scrub all those that did vote," Mullin said.
"Those states that don't participate with us, they have public records of those that voted, which is where we found the 250,000 from the 4 states that don't participate with us. We will go through those records one by one. And we will pursue everybody. We will make sure that people know they can trust our elections."
Mullin said the Trump administration was investigating whether a quarter million noncitizens were registered to vote in four states: California, Nevada, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
But officials in those states are pushing back on the allegations, particularly in Nevada. Its Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar issued the following statement:
"As Nevada's chief elections officer, it is my job to call balls and strikes. So when the president lies, I obligated to call him out. The facts have not changed: Nevada's elections are among the safest, most secure and accessible in the nation."
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The response from states is the latest pushback against Trump administration efforts that it alleges will improve election security.
Last week, a judge denied a request from the Department of Justice to collect the personal information of election workers from Fulton County, Georgia, which includes Atlanta.
The Supreme Court ruled earlier in July that mail-in ballots may be counted after Election Day deadlines, so long as they are postmarked no later than the day of the election.
And in January, the FBI seized ballots and other hardcopy records from Fulton County. The case has since gone to court, where Fulton County is suing the Justice Department on Fourth Amendment grounds.
