White House seeks control of state elections

Dutchess and Putnam are among a handful of New York counties where election boards recently have received unusual federal subpoenas for information on registered voters as the administration of President Donald Trump pursues more control over state elections.

Lisa Jessup, the Democratic commissioner for the Dutchess County Board of Elections, said on Tuesday (Sept. 16) that in a subpoena received on Sept. 4, the Department of Homeland Security requested information on a single voter who registered to vote as a Republican in 2023 through the state Department of Motor Vehicles. The person has never voted, she said.

Two more subpoenas were sent to the Putnam Board of Elections, one in June and another on Sept. 9, said Catherine Croft, the Democratic commissioner, and Kelly Primavera, the Republican commissioner. Primavera said it is not unusual to respond to requests from state or local police, but could not recall having ever gotten a subpoena from the federal government.

Homeland Security also subpoenaed records for three voters in Saratoga County and an Ellenville resident in Ulster County who registered through the DMV, according to the Times Union in Albany. A Homeland Security agent contacted by the Daily Freeman in Kingston about the Ulster County request said the subpoena was "related to potential voter fraud," but declined further comment, citing an ongoing investigation, according to the paper.

Shadowing the requests is the Trump administration's campaign against alleged widespread voting by non-citizens, despite laws that already prevent them from voting in state and federal elections and a lack of evidence. New York is among at least 27 states where election boards have received requests from the Department of Justice to turn over their databases of registered voters, including driver's license numbers and the last four digits of Social Security numbers, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

The letter to New York officials, dated June 30, asked them to detail how the state complies with the Help America Vote Act, including processes for identifying ineligible voters, such as non-citizens and people registered in other states.

At least 11 states responded by sending publicly available files, leading to a second round of letters in August requesting the entire databases, according to an analysis by Eileen O'Connor, a senior counsel with the Brennan Center. "The executive branch has no authority to run our elections, nor any authority to compile a massive database of voters' personal information," she said.

In March, Trump issued a sweeping executive order that included directing the attorney general and Justice Department to prioritize the prosecution of election crimes, although they appear to be rare. A database maintained by the conservative Heritage Foundation lists 1,276 election-fraud cases nationwide over the past 20 years, including 26 in New York for charges ranging from misusing absentee ballots to voting twice in the same election and forging petition signatures.

There were 85 cases involving non-citizens accused of registering to vote or casting ballots during that period, and none in New York state. Heritage's database lists no cases nationally for 2020, when more than 155 million people cast votes in the presidential election that Trump lost to Joe Biden.

On Sept. 4, Louisiana's Republican secretary of state, Nancy Landry, announced that an investigation involving voter rolls as far back as the 1980s found 390 non-citizens registered to vote, with 79 having voted in at least one election. "Noncitizens illegally registering or voting is not a systemic problem in Louisiana," she said. "In fact, our voter-list maintenance procedures are a key reason why Louisiana is ranked No. 3 in the nation for election integrity."

In June, New York and 18 other states that sued the Trump administration over his executive order won a preliminary injunction against some...