![\"president](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0f3fbfc8-24a1-4c2b-a2f7-1221c44c2240.jpg\"\/ "\\"President")
<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\tPresident Donald Trump renewed concerns about election security during a speech Thursday night, again raising claims tied to his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden. But Pennsylvania’s top election official says documented cases of non-citizens voting in the state remain rare.Schmidt says non-citizen voting is rarePennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt said Friday that instances of non-citizens casting ballots are uncommon and defended the state’s recent decision not to provide certain voter information \u2014 including Social Security numbers \u2014 to the federal government.”When we haven’t complied with anything the federal government has demanded, it has been because we cannot legally do it,” Schmidt said.Federal letter raises questionsThe comments come after the Pennsylvania Department of State received a letter from Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin alleging that nearly 15,000 people in Pennsylvania who are registered to vote could potentially be non-citizens.Non-citizens suspected of voting totaled more than 250,000 in four states, including Pennsylvania, according to DHS.Mullin warns of possible consequencesMullin said election officials who fail to act after receiving information from the federal government could face consequences.”Once we give election officials the information they need to secure their elections, and they chose not to, then those individuals can also be held accountable by fines, by penalties and even, depending on how far it goes, prison time,” Mullin said.Schmidt said he did not view Mullin’s remarks as a threat and said the Department of State complies with federal requests whenever state law permits.State questions federal methodologyHowever, Schmidt questioned the basis of the federal government’s claim about the number of potentially ineligible voters.”While we received a letter from the Department of Homeland Security, what we did not receive is a list, and we did not receive any methodology that they used to create that list,” Schmidt said. “So it’s impossible to speak to the accuracy of it or the reliability of it.”Audit found one clerical errorSchmidt also pointed to a recent report from Pennsylvania’s auditor general that found only one non-citizen was registered through the state’s motor voter system during a six-month review period.The report determined that registration resulted from a clerical error.DHS offers broad responseThe Department of Homeland Security did not directly answer questions about whether the list referenced in its letter had been provided to Pennsylvania officials.Instead, the department said election integrity is not a partisan issue and that all states have a responsibility to help ensure elections are secure and fair.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tHARRISBURG, Pa. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump renewed concerns about election security during a speech Thursday night, again raising claims tied to his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden. But Pennsylvania’s top election official says documented cases of non-citizens voting in the state remain rare.<\/p>\n
Schmidt says non-citizen voting is rare<\/p>\n
Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt said Friday that instances of non-citizens casting ballots are uncommon and defended the state’s recent decision not to provide certain voter information \u2014 including Social Security numbers \u2014 to the federal government.<\/p>\n
\t\t<\/p>\n
“When we haven’t complied with anything the federal government has demanded, it has been because we cannot legally do it,” Schmidt said.<\/p>\n
Federal letter raises questions\t<\/p>\n
The comments come after the Pennsylvania Department of State received a letter from Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin alleging that nearly 15,000 people in Pennsylvania who are registered to vote could potentially be non-citizens.<\/p>\n
Non-citizens suspected of voting totaled more than 250,000 in four states, including Pennsylvania, according to DHS.<\/p>\n
Mullin warns of possible consequences<\/p>\n
Mullin said election officials who fail to act after receiving information from the federal government could face consequences.<\/p>\n
“Once we give election officials the information they need to secure their elections, and they chose not to, then those individuals can also be held accountable by fines, by penalties and even, depending on how far it goes, prison time,” Mullin said.<\/p>\n
Schmidt said he did not view Mullin’s remarks as a threat and said the Department of State complies with federal requests whenever state law permits.<\/p>\n
State questions federal methodology<\/p>\n
However, Schmidt questioned the basis of the federal government’s claim about the number of potentially ineligible voters.<\/p>\n
“While we received a letter from the Department of Homeland Security, what we did not receive is a list, and we did not receive any methodology that they used to create that list,” Schmidt said. “So it’s impossible to speak to the accuracy of it or the reliability of it.”<\/p>\n
Audit found one clerical error<\/p>\n
Schmidt also pointed to a recent report from Pennsylvania’s auditor general that found only one non-citizen was registered through the state’s motor voter system during a six-month review period.<\/p>\n
The report determined that registration resulted from a clerical error.<\/p>\n
DHS offers broad response<\/p>\n
The Department of Homeland Security did not directly answer questions about whether the list referenced in its letter had been provided to Pennsylvania officials.<\/p>\n
Instead, the department said election integrity is not a partisan issue and that all states have a responsibility to help ensure elections are secure and fair.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump renewed concerns about election security during a speech Thursday night, again raising claims tied to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[105426,105427,104109,28,30812,105429,30,29,105428,368],"class_list":["post-246330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-2020-election-loss-to-joe-biden","tag-homeland-security-secretary-markwayne-mullin","tag-non-citizens","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-department-of-state","tag-pennsylvania-election-official","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-pennsylvania-secretary-of-the-commonwealth-al-schmidt","tag-president-donald-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}