The Trump administration has intensified its push for greater oversight of U.S. elections. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin warned local officials of potential imprisonment for not complying with voter data requests. This comes after the president's televised speech that repeated unproven allegations regarding election security. White House correspondent Liz Landers provides details.

Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.

Geoff Bennett:

Welcome to the News Hour.

The Trump administration is stepping up its drive to increase federal oversight of national elections. Today Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin warned local election officials they could face jail time if they decline to hand over voter data requested by the administration.

This follows President Trump using a prime-time speech to repeat unproven claims about the security of American elections and to urge stricter voting rules ahead of the November midterms.

For a closer look at the president's remarks and the supporting facts, we turn to White House correspondent Liz Landers.

President Donald Trump:

No trust, no greatness.

Liz Landers:

Fresh assertions about longstanding complaints with scant supporting proof. In a prime-time address President Donald Trump sought to shape the debate on election security just months before the midterms.

Donald Trump:

Tonight I am announcing the immediate declassification and release of critical intelligence revealing shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure.

Liz Landers:

Equipped with newly declassified files his main focus was a familiar foreign rival China.

Donald Trump:

The People's Republic of China carried out what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history resulting in China's illicit acquisition of 220 million U.S. voter files.

Liz Landers:

The president presented a grim view of U.S. election security yet a close review of the White House's own released documents shows a different picture.

Across hundreds of pages of heavily redacted files the intelligence community addresses China's efforts to possibly influence the 2020 election though these are often described as potential risks with no proof that the efforts succeeded.

In fact one declassified document states that publicly available U.S. voter registration information for six states was downloaded by the People's Republic of China in 2022 well after the 2020 election.

David Becker a former Department of Justice attorney who leads the Center for Election Innovation and Research called the president's claims inaccurate.

David Becker Executive Director Center for Election Innovation and Research: The reality is it was not a hack. As much as we might dislike China trying to gather as much data as possible on Americans the voter lists in the United States are public. There is a public voter list in every state available for purchase sometimes at no cost.

Liz Landers:

Mr. Trump also alleged a coordinated effort by Beijing to undermine his political position.

Donald Trump:

They fought like hell not to have a Donald Trump win and for good reason.

Liz Landers:

He then turned his attention to the equipment used in elections.

Donald Trump:

They are vulnerable and they are easily compromised.

Liz Landers:

Becker noted that unfounded theories about foreign interference do not align with U.S. protections.

David Becker:

So we have had all paper ballots in the United States since at least 2020. The only state that does not have paper ballots currently is Louisiana.

Liz Landers:

Becker added that these ballots create a verifiable physical record checked by the voter.

David Becker:

The voter has reviewed the ballot every time and that is why we know that our vote counts are correct. It is not that we trust the machines. Any machine could malfunction. Our machines are under very strict chain of custody. They are not connected to the Internet.

Liz Landers:

The president did not stop with China. He also highlighted electronic voting machines citing a foreign case to caution about domestic risks.

Donald Trump:

The CIA obtained reporting of a specific plot to do a big number in favor of the corrupt Maduro regime in Venezuela. And that is exactly what happened conspiring to digitally rig their own country's elections in 2020 and that is what they did.

Liz Landers:

But those efforts would only succeed if every part of the election process was under Venezuelan government control which is why the released documents conclude such manipulation would not work in the U.S.

Mr. Trump also criticized immigration tying border crossings to voting.

Donald Trump:

According to the DHS review state voter rolls and public records they identified approximately 278000 noncitizens who are registered to vote in federal elections.

Liz Landers:

The report did not explain how that number was determined.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin could not say in a press conference today how many if any of those individuals actually voted. The president used the speech to urge Congress to pass the SAVE America Act a broad voter ID and proof of citizenship measure.

But federal databases and screening tools used to identify noncitizens have repeatedly been shown to wrongly flag U.S. citizens. Errors often occur when the systems rely on outdated records or try to confirm the citizenship status of naturalized Americans.

It produces false positives so often that a federal judge just last month blocked the Trump administration from using it noting it had haphazardly combined and repurposed the private information of millions of Americans including citizenship data that they knew to be unreliable.

The president's repeated inaccurate claims serve one political aim preemptively casting doubt ahead of the November midterms. Becker says despite all that elections will proceed without issue.

David Becker:

I have every confidence the election is going to be secure. It is also going to be convenient for voters to participate in. And whoever the voters choose to serve those people are going to take office.

Liz Landers:

For the PBS News Hour I am Liz Landers.