On July 7, U.S. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon ’89 sent letters to top election officials in every state and Washington, D.C. threatening criminal prosecution for “aiding and abetting” noncitizens voting. A spokesperson for New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan’s office confirmed that their office — which oversees N.H. elections — received the letter but declined to comment on whether Scanlan would respond as the letter requested or on the security of New Hampshire’s elections.
Dhillon, who oversees voting rights litigation as head of the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, wrote in a letter addressed to Scanlan that the Civil Rights Division is “authorized to prosecute criminal violations” of federal election laws detailed in the letter, according to a copy obtained and reviewed by The Dartmouth.
Among these laws are the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 — which mandates that states “avoid depriving” residents of a “fair and impartially conducted election process” by the “procurement, casting or tabulation” of ballots cast by noncitizens — and the Help America Vote Act of 2002, which makes it illegal to “provide false information or commit fraud in conjunction with a noncitizen registering to vote or casting a ballot … which may include election officials who knowingly conspire with noncitizens who illegally register to vote or cast a ballot,” the letter reads.
“Any election officer, including the chief election officer of the state, who knowingly retains noncitizens on the state’s SVRL [secure voter registration list] or facilitates noncitizens in receiving and casting ballots could be subject to criminal liability,” Dhillon wrote. “An intentional act that is aimed at diluting the votes of citizens could also constitute a violation” of the Conspiracy Against Rights Act.
The letter asked recipients to provide a written response by June 12 detailing how they plan to “ensure” their state is “complying” with federal election laws and how the Department of Justice can support their state in doing so.
The letter follows multiple attempts by the Trump administration to shape elections, which are primarily run by state and local officials. In February, President Donald Trump said on a conservative podcast that unless Republicans “took over” elections, the party would “never win another election” because “millions and millions” of noncitizens were “brought” to the U.S. “to vote.”
On June 29, a federal judge dismissed the Trump administration’s lawsuit for access to New Hampshire’s voter roll after Scanlan declined to turn them over in June 2025. The administration did not have a “compelling need” for the records nor evidence that suggested noncompliance with federal voting laws, district court judge Joseph LaPlante wrote. Similar lawsuits demanding access to other states’ voter registration lists have also been dismissed.
There is no evidence supporting Trump’s claims of widespread noncitizen voter fraud. In February, Center for Election Innovation and Research analysis found that allegations of noncitizens’ votes impacting results of federal elections “arise from misunderstandings, mischaracterizations or outright fabrications about complex voter data.”
In June, a federal judge struck down a New Hampshire law that banned the use of affidavits — rather than birth certificates or social security cards — to prove citizenship at the polls, ruling that the law placed an unconstitutional burden on voters who may not have access to citizenship documents on Election Day.
Government professor and N.H. State Representative Russel Muirhead, D-Hanover, wrote in an email statement to The Dartmouth that Dhillon should be “ashamed” for “corrupting” the Department of Justice by “legitimating” the “lie” that noncitizens fraudulently vote in federal elections.
“She knows that non-citizens do not vote,” he wrote. “Why would a non-citizen risk prosecution and deportation in order to fraudulently cast a vote — it defies rationality to imagine that someone who has undertaken enormous effort to get to the United States would risk everything to cast a vote.”
Muirhead speculated that Dhillon “wants to lay the groundwork to contest the results of future elections,” pointing to Trump’s 2018 claim that Republican candidates lose elections “because of potentially illegal votes” and continued denial of the 2020 presidential election results.
“Democracy, at rock bottom, only needs one thing: it needs those who lose elections to accept their loss — not take up violence and resistance, but accept it,” he continued. “... My guess is that she [Dhillon] is trying to prepare the way for large numbers of citizens to protest and resist when their favored candidates do not prevail in elections. And she is helping to destroy the one elemental thing democracy cannot do without.”
Government professor Jason Barabas wrote in an email statement to The Dartmouth that “election security remains a top issue of concern” for the Trump administration.
“Beyond legal threats, local and state election administrators need additional resources to help make sure elections are conducted properly,” he wrote.
Dhillon did not respond to a request for comment. Kiersten Pels, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Justice, confirmed in an email statement to The Dartmouth that letters “asking for voluntary compliance in a timely manner with their obligations under federal law to ensure only citizens vote in federal elections” were sent to election officials in every state.
Iris WeaverBell ’28 is a reporter and editor. She is from Portland, Ore., and is majoring in economics and minoring in public policy.
