Homeland Security Investigations, the investigative arm of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has spent the past year scrutinizing hundreds of nonprofits and organizations involved in voter registration, according to internal government documents obtained by the legal nonprofit Democracy Forward through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
The documents show the agency focused on battleground states, including at least 82 organizations in Pennsylvania and 41 in New Jersey, as well as Washington, D.C., and Minnesota. The records also reveal that ICE considered deploying undercover agents to communicate with groups suspected of helping noncitizens register to vote.
Massive Data Collection and Case Outcomes
A June report indicates investigators had ingested 50.6 million records from a Justice Department dataset, plus another 48.4 million records from what the document calls “independent sources,” totaling nearly 100 million records analyzed for potential leads. This year, Homeland Security Investigations said it opened 418 voter-fraud cases, but 318 of those 418 cases were not referred for prosecution, suggesting many investigations yielded no actionable results.
State voter-roll information may have also been entered into Palantir’s ELITE system, an ICE tool used to identify, prioritize, and locate people targeted for immigration enforcement, according to Democracy Docket. This raises concerns about the intersection of immigration enforcement and election administration.
Legal and Political Context
Noncitizen voting is already prohibited under federal law. The government was not investigating a person suspected of illegally voting, which would have been valid — it was investigating the organizations helping people register to vote, which should be problematic for everyone.
This administration has a documented history of challenging election legitimacy. Donald Trump pressured Georgia officials after losing the 2020 election, asking Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to reverse his defeat. To this day, the president won’t even admit he lost the 2020 election.
Now, years later, his administration has built an enormous federal apparatus around finding voter fraud, which now includes examining nonprofits, scrutinizing voter rolls, and considering undercover operations. This comes amid broader concerns about election integrity, with recent polling showing Republican voter enthusiasm lagging compared to Democrats.
Evidence Shows Voter Fraud Is Rare
The available evidence shows that voter fraud is extraordinarily rare. A Brennan Center study of 23.5 million votes across 42 jurisdictions found just 30 suspected cases — roughly one for every million votes. More recent state audits have similarly found numbers that were extremely low and did not sway election outcomes in any way.
Despite this, the administration continues to expand its investigative reach. The focus on nonprofits in battleground states raises questions about whether these efforts are designed to suppress turnout among certain demographics. As Democratic voters expect a midterm sweep, the political stakes are high.
“This has to stop,” said Lindsey Granger, a NewsNation contributor and co-host of The Hill’s commentary show “Rising.” This column is an edited transcription of her on-air commentary.
