SerpApi.Org
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin warned that state election officials who refuse to comply with the Trump administration’s proposed election security requirements could face steep penalties, including possible prison time.
The SAVE America Act
Speaking at a press conference, Mullin said the Trump administration plans to make new election security measures mandatory for states seeking federal election funding through the administration’s SAVE program.
SAVE, which stands for “Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements,” is part of the SAVE America Act, legislation President Donald Trump has urged congressional Republicans to pass. Senate Majority Leader John Thune has acknowledged the bill currently lacks enough support to clear the Senate.
Mullin echoed election security concerns raised by Trump during the president’s primetime address on Thursday, July 16, in which Trump alleged longstanding vulnerabilities in U.S. elections.
According to The New York Times, “President Trump drew selectively from documents his aides published online to insinuate that U.S. elections have been compromised for years and that government officials had suppressed the evidence.”
Markwayne Mullin’s threat of ‘prison time’
Mullin said states will have to meet the Trump administration’s standards if they want federal reimbursement for administering elections.
“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.”
He later said states that decline to comply could face increased federal scrutiny, with election officials potentially held personally responsible.
“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.”
The executive branch’s role in elections
The U.S. Constitution assigns primary responsibility for administering elections to the states, while giving Congress authority to establish federal election regulations. It does not assign the executive branch a direct role in overseeing elections.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom pushed back against Mullin’s remarks on social media.
“California has free, fair, and secure elections and we will fight for them,” Newsom wrote in a social media post, concluding with a challenge: “Try us.”
