Virginia’s attorney general has warned Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin that a federal voter fraud investigation may have breached several state laws, demanding that the operation stop immediately.
Jay Jones, a Democrat, said agents searching for evidence of non-citizens among registered voters may have unlawfully accessed protected information through Virginia’s voter registration system.
The investigation, internally known as the Unlawful Voter Initiative, has involved hundreds of Homeland Security agents working for weeks to examine voter records, despite no evidence of widespread fraud being identified in the material.
Virginia’s voter information portal requires users to confirm that the information they are seeking belongs to them, or that they are expressly authorised by the voter to access it. Users are also warned that accessing another voter’s record is unlawful.
Mr Jones said agents who made that declaration while searching for other people’s details may have violated three Virginia criminal statutes. He said voter registration information and voting history were protected under state law and that a court order was therefore required.
“Users that falsely make this certification in an effort to gather protected voter information may be violating several Virginia criminal statutes,” he wrote in his letter to Mr Mullin.
The attorney general also challenged guidance in Homeland Security training materials which reportedly suggested that agents could use state voter-search tools for investigative purposes.
“The Office of the Attorney General of Virginia is not aware of any blanket legal authority that would permit” Homeland Security agents “to obtain protected information from state officials without a court order, let alone any authority that would permit agents to gather that information through fraudulent means,” Mr Jones wrote.
Agents reportedly used personally identifiable information, including dates of birth and partial Social Security numbers, gathered from internal and external sources to search portals designed to restrict access to individual voters.
Mr Jones has demanded that the operation be halted and that any records relating to Virginia be handed to his office. He also cited a whistle-blower account alleging that Homeland Security’s chief counsel told agents they would not be “personally liable for conducting these searches”.
That claim, Mr Jones wrote, “further suggests that leadership is aware that the underlying conduct violates state law”.
A spokeswoman for Mr Jones confirmed the authenticity of the letter but said the office could not confirm the existence or scope of any investigations. She said the reported use of protected personal information was “deeply concerning” and that the attorney general’s office was reviewing the matter.
Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
