President Trump delivered a primetime address from the White House on election security, alleging that China accessed hundreds of millions of American voter registration files and tried to influence the 2020 presidential election. The speech was accompanied by the release of newly declassified documents.
Trump said his administration was already responding. "My administration is in the process of notifying the states whose election data was compromised by the People's Republic of China and many others," he said, adding that they are "taking swift action to ensure that sensitive voter data is better protected."
He also announced that Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin would hold a briefing Friday to outline the department's work on cyber vulnerabilities in electronic voting systems. "We're also committing to be working with those states and local jurisdictions to help them fix and patch known technical vulnerabilities before the midterm elections," Trump said. "I've also ordered DHS to notify every state about noncitizens on their voter rolls and direct them to remove all ineligible voters from the lists immediately."
U.S. intelligence agencies have said no foreign powers, including China, attempted to interfere with ballots or vote-counting in 2020. Claims about Chinese influence in that election have long been a subject of debate.
Election experts also pushed back on the framing of the voter data allegations. David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research and a CBS News election law contributor, noted that voter registration data in the United States is largely public. "It sounds bad when you hear about it," Becker said. "The reality is: voter files in the United States are public." He noted that states including Ohio and North Carolina post the data online for free, and California makes it available for $100. The data is routinely used by political parties and campaigns, and Becker said many election experts had long assumed foreign governments might have access to it as well.
The speech also served as a push for the SAVE America Act, a bill currently before Congress that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote, among other changes.
