The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is facing questions over previously publicized claims about the number of potential noncitizens registered to vote in Nevada after federal officials acknowledged that only a small portion of the original figure has undergone manual review.
President Donald Trump cited a DHS review during a July 16 White House address that identified approximately 278,000 noncitizens who could be registered to vote in federal elections nationwide.
Documents subsequently released by the White House said there could be approximately 15,903 noncitizens on Nevada’s voter rolls.
However, DHS officials told Nevada election authorities during a private meeting last week that only 185 individuals had been identified following manual review as “potential” noncitizen voters, according to reporting cited by the Daily Mail.
A DHS spokesperson disputed suggestions that the department’s original numbers were incorrect.
“The 185 are the individuals that had gone through manual review,” the spokesperson said.
The department also provided Nevada with information involving another 6,218 individuals who had the highest number of matching attributes in federal records.
“This was at the request of [Nevada],” the spokesperson said. “They wanted to start with a subset less than the 15,903.”
During the virtual meeting, DHS officials reportedly described the roughly 16,000 figure as “the ceiling” of possible noncitizen registrations rather than a confirmed total.
Federal officials also reportedly told Nevada that approximately 14,000 additional records still require further examination.
That distinction has prompted Nevada officials to caution against treating the initial figure as established fact.
Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar (D) said DHS representatives informed his office that the publicly released numbers were preliminary.
“There is not high enough confidence to be able to share the full data set with Nevada officials,” Aguilar said.
“The Secretary of State’s office will not risk disenfranchising eligible voters and ripping away their constitutional right to vote without the highest confidence of their ineligibility,” he added.
Nevada officials have requested additional information from DHS as they attempt to evaluate the federal government’s findings.
The discrepancy also raises questions about figures released for several other states.
The DHS review said “there may be as many as” 190,832 noncitizens registered to vote in California, 35,152 in New Jersey and 14,576 in Pennsylvania, per the Daily Mail.
Trump highlighted those findings during his July address.
“To reveal just how vulnerable our elections continue to be, we are releasing the results of a stunning investigation by the Department of Homeland Security,” Trump said.
“According to the DHS review, state voter rolls and public records, they identified approximately 278,000 non-citizens who are registered to vote in federal elections.”
The White House has argued that the actual nationwide number could be higher because some Democratic-led states have declined to provide voter files to federal officials.
Nevada has a Republican governor, but responsibility for the state’s elections rests with Aguilar, a Democrat.
For now, DHS maintains that its broader figures represent potential matches still undergoing verification, while Nevada officials say they need more reliable evidence before taking action against individual voters.
