Homeland Security agents may have illegally accessed Virginia voter rolls, whistleblower alleges

Emma Rose Brown, The Virginian-Pilot on Sep 23, 2026

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NORFOLK, Va. — A whistleblower alleged that Department of Homeland Security agents may have illegally accessed Virginia voter records.

On Sep. 8, a whistleblower made a protected disclosure to the Senate alleging that agents working on the Unlawful Voter Initiative — the department’s name for its investigation — had used Virginia’s voter registration database to cross-reference names of noncitizens.

The whistleblower said USCIS Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate personnel were directed to impersonate Virginia voters by using personal information to access Virginians’ voter records and falsely certify that they were the voters whose records they were accessing.

Virginia’s online voter lookup portal requires users to certify that they are accessing their own voter registration record or have been expressly authorized by the voter. The site also warns that it is unlawful to access another voter’s record.

The whistleblower also alleged that agents were assigned to review 40 subjects per day to meet a department quota. The whistleblower said agency training explicitly acknowledged Virginia’s attestation requirement.

In a statement Tuesday, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson acknowledged the department accessed voter rolls.

“The Department accessed publicly available data from states’ voter rolls and cross referenced them with known aliens in our systems. It’s not rocket science; it’s an easy step to secure our elections,” the spokesperson said.

Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones sent a letter to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Sep. 17 citing several Virginia statutes that he said agents may have violated.

“Users that falsely make this certification in an effort to gather protected voter information may be violating several Virginia criminal statutes,” Jones said. “The whistleblower also alleged that (Office of Chief Counsel) informed agents that they would not be ‘personally liable for conducting these searches,’ which further suggests that leadership is aware that the underlying conduct violates state law.”

Virginia law protects voter information from disclosure. Jones said DHS would have needed a court order to access the records.

In a letter Friday, Virginia’s two U.S. senators, Tim Kaine and Mark Warner demanded an investigation. They asked the Office of the Inspector General to “use every tool at (its) disposal…to prevent any additional wrongdoing or misuse of agency personnel and resources while the investigation is ongoing.”

The department’s Unlawful Voter Initiative is part of a broader effort to uncover voter fraud. The initiative follows years of Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud and the administration’s broader effort to obtain voter data from states to identify potentially ineligible voters, including noncitizens.