Jones warns false voter-portal certifications may break Virginia law

Attorney general of Virginia

“Users that falsely make this certification in an effort to gather protected voter information may be violating several Virginia criminal statutes.”
Open source (opens in a new tab)Virginia attorney general's roundup quoting his DHS voter-data letterFighting Federal Overreach section, New York Times and Associated Press excerpts
Read the original text (opens in a new tab)Senate letter and whistleblower disclosure on DHS's Unlawful Voter InitiativeSenators' letter, pp. 1-6; September 8 disclosure, pp. 7 onward; state-portal and training excerpts, pp. 15-23.

Source and context

Reporting

Virginia attorney general's roundup quoting his DHS voter-data letter (opens in a new tab)Fighting Federal Overreach section, New York Times and Associated Press excerpts

About this source

Jones's office reproduces reporting that quotes his September 17 letter to DHS and confirms its authenticity. The letter says false voter-portal certifications may violate Virginia law and asks DHS whether its staff accessed protected records without authorization.

Archived copy (opens in a new tab)

Original text

Senate letter and whistleblower disclosure on DHS's Unlawful Voter Initiative (opens in a new tab)Senators' letter, pp. 1-6; September 8 disclosure, pp. 7 onward; state-portal and training excerpts, pp. 15-23.

About this source

The published packet contains senators' allegations, a whistleblower's account, screenshots of state voter portals, and excerpts from USCIS training. The reproduced training says officers may search listed sites; it does not explicitly instruct them to make a false voter attestation.

Archived copy (opens in a new tab)

Before the quotation

A whistleblower alleged DHS officers used a Virginia voter portal that requires users to attest they are the voter or have express authorization.

After the quotation

Jones asked DHS whether its personnel accessed Virginia voter records without authorization and called for records to be preserved.

How this statement is classified

Condemned

Case context: Did DHS direct officers to misrepresent themselves to search state voter records?

The label describes this statement’s response within the context above.

Why this label?

Jones objects to the alleged unauthorized access and seeks to stop it, while treating whether officers made false certifications as a matter to establish.

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People and groups discussed
U.S. Department of Homeland Security

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Gary Peters

“If true, this is just another alarming effort by the Department to use data that USCIS materials admit may be inaccurate”
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Markwayne Mullin

“That's absolutely not the directive that we put out there, and it's not even close to what we're doing.”
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Alex Padilla

“Federal officers are being told by headquarters to lie or to misrepresent themselves in order to access state voter data.”
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