With the November midterm elections nearing, the Trump administration is increasing its focus on ballot security, voter roll integrity, and prosecution of election related offenses.
According to a Just the News report, Acting U.S. Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter said Tuesday that federal agencies are taking additional steps to prevent unlawful voting and strengthen safeguards around the election process.
Although a federal judge recently blocked the administration’s proposed mail ballot security rules, McCotter said the decision will not stop the Justice Department from pressing forward with election enforcement.
“Election integrity — which includes ballot integrity, by the way — should be a nonpartisan issue,” he added. “The right of American citizens to have their votes properly counted is vital to determining the rightful winner of an election.”
McCotter said the Justice Department brought charges against 32 noncitizens for illegal voting and registration offenses during the previous four weeks. That figure raises the total number of people charged with such offenses during Trump’s second term to 70.
“By comparison, in the prior administration, they brought only 13 — that's not 13 per year; it's 13 in four years total,” McCotter added. “So think about that: in the last four weeks, we've brought almost three times as many as the prior administration brought in four years. The prior administration simply turned a blind eye and refused to protect our nation's electoral integrity.”
Beyond criminal investigations, the administration is planning further oversight of ballot handling. The U.S. Postal Service will send auditors to review whether postal facilities are following ballot collection standards and relevant election laws.
Democratic lawmakers have condemned the initiative, arguing it could erode public confidence in elections. At a voting rights forum held Tuesday, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland accused the administration of spreading “misinformation and anxiety” about the nation’s voting system.
Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon of Pennsylvania accused President Donald Trump of “trying to undermine voters’ faith in our elections, with phony claims about election integrity, by defunding the watchdogs and systems that protect our elections, and by trying to restrict access to the ballot with 21st Century voter suppression tools, like the SAVE [America] Act.”
The [SAVE America Act](https://www.congress.gov) has passed the House but remains stalled in the Senate. The measure would require valid identification for voting in federal elections, require citizenship documentation during registration, require in person registration for federal contests, and direct states to remove noncitizens from voter rolls.
Democrats describe the proposal as voter suppression, maintaining that unlawful voting is uncommon and that tougher documentation rules could create barriers for rural, disabled, and lower income voters. Republicans argue that voter identification, citizenship verification, and accurate voter lists are basic protections needed to preserve confidence in election outcomes.
McCotter argued that the federal government needs greater cooperation from state officials to protect the vote, citing New Jersey’s voter registration issues.
“We can't solve this problem alone. We need states to stand with us. Unfortunately, several states have actually made it easier to cheat,” McCotter argued Tuesday. “New Jersey, for example, recently admitted 6,600 aliens had been improperly registered to vote, and they admitted hundreds of them did in fact vote. So remember, folks, voting fraud is real.”
An August 2026 Census Bureau report found that its preliminary examination did not identify suspected noncitizen votes at a scale large enough to change the outcome in any state during the 2020 presidential election. The bureau said it still had 32 million votes left to evaluate.
Using data matched against records from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Social Security Administration, the IRS, and other agencies, the bureau concluded “with high confidence” that around 24,000 of the 128 million ballots examined were cast by noncitizens.
Matthew Milholland, deputy head of Homeland Security Investigations, said the agency has recently developed more than 1,600 election fraud cases, leading to over 160 arrests.
“The broader scope of this election integrity initiative is about enforcing federal law, protecting lawful voting and other official processes from criminal exploitation,” Milholland told reporters.
America cannot afford an election system that leaves obvious openings for fraud, improper registration, or mishandled ballots. Stronger voter verification, cleaner voter rolls, reliable ballot controls, and meaningful criminal enforcement are essential to protect citizens’ votes from bad actors. The Trump administration has begun treating the issue with greater seriousness, but securing American elections requires sustained action in every state.
