Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the Trump administration's attempt to impose new mail-ballot requirements ahead of the midterms, saying there is "a lot of evidence" that voting by mail carries a greater risk of fraud as the Justice Department examines election practices in multiple states.
Asked by CBS News what evidence showed mail voting was more susceptible to fraud than in-person voting with identification, Blanche initially repeated that there was "a lot of evidence." Pressed to identify it, he responded, "Well, it's common sense."
His comments came a day after the Supreme Court rejected the administration's request to enforce new Postal Service requirements for the November elections, leaving a lower court injunction in place while litigation continues.
The rules, finalized August 21, would require state and local election officials to provide USPS with information about mail-ballot recipients and use approved envelopes carrying unique barcodes. The Postal Service has said ballot mailings that fail to comply would be rejected and returned to election offices.
The Supreme Court said the government was unlikely to succeed in challenging the injunction. Justice Brett Kavanaugh said applying the rule to the midterms could violate federal administrative law because election officials lacked sufficient time to implement it. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented. Trump called the decision a "bad decision" and a "big loss for Republicans."
Blanche also disclosed a broader federal examination of voting practices to CBS News, saying the government is looking at "multiple states" and that DOJ has "hundreds of ongoing investigations" involving people it believes were ineligible to vote, including some who have been charged.
Those efforts extend beyond DOJ as NPR reported Monday that a federal whistleblower has come forward to allege that DHS surged personnel last month for an "Unlawful Voter Initiative," with agents using personally identifiable information to search state voter databases.
The whistleblower alleged employees may have been required to falsely attest that they were voters or authorized representatives to access some records, potentially violating state laws.
The department has told 29 states and Washington, D.C., to preserve 2024 election records and has sought voter-registration data containing sensitive identifiers. DOJ has acknowledged that unredacted information could be shared with the Department of Homeland Security for citizenship checks.
Asked whether the information would be placed in a database, Blanche said he was "not aware of a database," but acknowledged it would be stored and used to determine whether ineligible people had voted.
