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US Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Friday threatened state election officials with prison time if they do not comply with the Trump administration’s “mandatory” changes to how they run their elections.
During a press conference, Mullin said that the Trump administration was making so-called “security enhancements” to US elections “mandatory,” adding that any uncooperative states will be penalized.
“If these states want a grant and they want to be reimbursed to run federal elections, they’re going to have to implement security issues,” Mullin said. “We’re saying that your [voting] machines have to be secured and that your voter registration list needs to be scrubbed.”
Later in the press conference, Mullin elaborated further on penalties states could face if they didn’t “scrub” their voter rolls to the administration’s specifications.
“The states that choose… not to participate in securing the elections, we will make sure we make those states a priority to look into who voted in their states, and hold then the election officials accountable,” he said. “If the election officials, once we gave them the information they need to secure their elections, and they chose not to, then those individuals can also be held accountable.”
Mullin added that this accountability can come “by fines, by penalties, and even, depending on how far it goes, prison time.”
Mullin says that election officials in states that don’t cooperate with the Trump administration may face jail time pic.twitter.com/FvIaKmTEdc
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 17, 2026
Article 1, Section 4 of the United States Constitution explicitly gives states the power to run their own elections, while granting the US Congress the authority to implement federal regulations if needed.
The executive branch of the federal government is given no role in the administration and regulation of elections.
Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom reacted to Mullin’s threats of jail time for election officials with defiance.
“California has free, fair, and secure elections and we will fight for them,” Newsom wrote in a social media post. “Try us.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) similarly vowed to fight the administration’s efforts to meddle in the elections.
“They are losing, and they know it,” Schumer wrote. “Election officials will not be intimidated. Senate Democrats will make sure resources are in place to fight back against any illegal activity by the Trump administration.”
Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) warned that Mullin’s Friday statements appear to be an escalation in the administration’s tactics.
“First, they sent the FBI to seize ballots in Georgia,” he wrote. “Then, they tried to get data on election workers in Fulton County. Now, they’re threatening to imprison election officials. This is escalating quickly. Every single American should be alarmed.”
Government watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington also indicated it would file legal challenges to the administration’s efforts to take over the elections process.
“The Constitution gives states, not the federal government, the power to administer elections,” the group wrote. “That’s for a good reason, but the Trump admin keeps trying and failing to grab power anyway. We’re fighting back in court.”
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, expressed skepticism that the Trump White House’s election meddling would be successful.
The Department of Homeland Security “has literally zero power to do this,” Reichlin-Melnick wrote. “The Trump admin has lost every single lawsuit on their efforts to get state voter data or change voter requirements. The power to administer elections is given to the states.”
Historian Patrick Wyman similarly predicted the administration’s efforts would end in failure.
“They’re going to threaten this stuff, they’ll ham-fistedly screw up the implementation, commit seven atrocities, and still lose every election that matters in November,” Wyman wrote. “We’re now nearing the ‘fuck you, do it, see what happens’ stage of this confrontation.”
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