Already a subscriber? Make sure to log into your account before viewing this content. You can access your account by hitting the “login” button on the top right corner. Still unable to see the content after signing in? Make sure your card on file is up-to-date.

DHS Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has threatened state election officials with fines, investigations, and even prison time if they don’t comply with the Trump administration’s election security demands.

Getting into it: Secretary Mullin made the threats during a news conference at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building following President Trump’s prime-time address on election security. He said preliminary DHS reviews found as many as 190,832 potential noncitizens on California’s voter rolls, 35,152 in New Jersey, 15,903 in Nevada, and 14,576 in Pennsylvania. He sent letters to all four secretaries of state demanding they respond within two weeks and commit to working with DHS, and said states that don’t run their rolls through a federal database could lose access to federal grants.

DHS offered no evidence backing the tallies, and Mullin didn’t detail the criteria used to compile them. Neither he nor Trump said how many noncitizens have actually voted.

At the news conference, Mullin said, “If the election officials, once we gave them the information they need to secure their elections, and they chose not to, then those individuals can also be held accountable by fines, by penalties, and even depending on how far it goes, prison time.” He also pledged DHS would scrub election records before and after the midterms, warning that “if you are an illegal or you are voting illegally, we will hunt you down, we will find you and we will prosecute you.”

State officials pushed back hard. Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar called the numbers “wildly speculative at best and the Department of Homeland Security hasn’t shared anything that backs it up.”

Pennsylvania’s Al Schmidt said the state would review the claims but wouldn’t hand over private data, noting “all evidence has shown that noncitizen voting is extremely rare across the country.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said his state “has free, fair, and secure elections and we will fight for them. Try us.”

Mullin also claimed foreign adversaries have components inside US voting machines that “can change voter registration and your vote,” adding, “we know it’s possible.” He said CISA, the federal cybersecurity agency, would release an updated election infrastructure plan within 30 days.

This all comes as Trump administration officials continue to push Congress to pass the SAVE Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote. The bill is stuck in the Senate, where Republicans lack the votes to break a filibuster without Democratic support.