Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has requested that the Justice Department investigate key elements of the nation’s election infrastructure, including widely used voting machines and a major interstate voter roll database, signaling a renewed effort by the Trump administration to challenge electronic voting systems ahead of the midterm elections.

In a letter sent Wednesday to newly confirmed Attorney General Todd Blanche, Mullin asked federal authorities to determine whether ballot-marking devices that utilize bar codes or QR codes can yield a “reliable record for a manual audit” under federal law.

Mullin also called for an inquiry into the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), a nonpartisan database-sharing consortium designed to prevent dual-state voting and purge deceased voters from state registries.

The request renews inquiries initially submitted under former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who was ousted in March. Coming less than two months before the midterms, the move raises questions among critics about whether the administration is laying groundwork to contest future election results.

Unlike traditional paper ballots marked by hand, ballot-marking devices rely on touch-screen interfaces to generate printed paper ballots containing both plain text and scannable digital codes. A separate tabulator reads the code to count the vote.

While skeptics allege these digital codes could theoretically be manipulated by hackers, election security experts emphasize there is no recorded evidence of such an exploit occurring in an actual election. The machinery is heavily utilized in states like Georgia and South Carolina, both of which carried for President Trump.

President Trump has consistently criticized electronic voting equipment, tracing back to unproven claims regarding the 2020 election.

In March 2025, he issued an executive order raising security concerns about bar-code voting technology, followed by a prime-time address citing declassified intelligence regarding voting machine vulnerabilities.

However, intelligence assessments, including a CIA report on Venezuelan election technology, concluded that foreign actors lacked the capability to alter election outcomes outside their own borders.

Mullin’s letter also targeted ERIC – long considered a mainstream tool for maintaining accurate voter records. In recent years, the consortium has faced intense pressure from conservative activists who claim it improperly favors left-wing voter drives.

Driven by those allegations — promoted in part by Heather Honey, a former activist who now serves as a senior Department of Homeland Security official — nine Republican-led states previously withdrew from the system, though nearly 30 states remain members.

Additionally, Mullin alleged that ERIC may have unlawfully shared driver and voter information with the Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR), a nonpartisan election integrity group.

CEIR Executive Director David Becker, a former Justice Department official who helped establish ERIC, rejected the claims on Friday, saying the allegations appear to mischaracterize research conducted more than five years ago.

Becker noted that Homeland Security officials made no contact with his organization to seek clarification prior to issuing the letter.