Nevada Says 185 Voters Flagged by DHS as Noncitizens Are U.S. Citizens

Nevada election officials said all 185 registered voters identified by the Department of Homeland Security as confirmed noncitizens are U.S. citizens, undercutting a Trump administration claim about the state’s voter rolls.

President Donald Trump said in July that DHS had found a combined 278,000 noncitizens registered in Nevada, California, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Subsequent DHS letters described those figures as possible totals and put Nevada’s number at up to 15,903.

During an August meeting, DHS officials said a manual review had confirmed 185 cases while more than 14,000 records still required examination. Nevada officials later reviewed the 185 records and found that each belonged to a citizen.

“As for the 185 individuals, our records indicate that they were citizens. You have provided nothing of substance to suggest otherwise,” Nevada Deputy Attorney General Greg Ott wrote to DHS in an email reported by The New York Times and obtained by other outlets.

Ott said DHS supplied voter identification numbers but not names, addresses or other information needed to verify its matches. Nevada recently moved from county registration systems to a statewide system, and the same identification number may have been associated with different voter records over time. Such numbers also do not establish a person’s citizenship or immigration status, Ott wrote.

Nevada officials are still seeking DHS records underlying the broader allegation. The New Republic reported that DHS has since reduced the remaining figure to 6,218. DHS did not respond to The Guardian’s request for comment.