On March 25, 2025, Presidential Executive Order 14019, Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections, was signed. Section 2 of the order lays out the steps to be undertaken to enforce the citizenship requirement for voting in federal elections. It lists the documents required to prove citizenship and requires the federal government to provide all necessary resources to states so that they may verify the status of non-citizens.

Section 2 (b)(iii) requires the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to review the “publicly available voter registration list and available records concerning voter list maintenance activities” for compliance with Federal requirements.

Section 2 (e) instructs the Attorney General (AG) to prioritize the enforcement of those laws “that restrict non-citizens from registering to vote or voting.” The AG can use DHS databases, “State-issued identification records and driver license databases,” and similar records relating to citizenship.

On August 4, 2025 Deputy Assistant Attorney General Michael E. Gates contacted PA Secretary Al Schmidt requesting that he provide the DOJ with the complete statewide voter registration list, including all [data] fields, as required by the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). Additionally, Mr. Gates requested detailed information stemming from PA’s answers to the Election Administration and Voting Survey (EAVS), which was completed in June 2025. What is the DOJ questioning?

• Duplicate Registrations found by PA is 3 times lower than the national average;
• Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) found an additional 19,489 PA registrants also registered in second states as of Summer 2025;
• A total of only 957 duplicate registrations were removed by PA counties, with most counties removing one or no duplicates. Locally, Chester County removed 4; Delaware County removed 27; Montgomery County removed 8; and Philadelphia removed 578 duplicate registrations.

Additionally, the DOJ asked Secretary Schmidt to explain the steps PA takes to identify ineligible voters and the process used to remove them from the voter rolls.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dillon sent a follow-up letter to Secretary Schmidt clarifying that the DOJ was requesting all voter information, including Drivers’ License numbers and the last four digits of the Social Security Numbers, as held in the PA Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors (SURE) database. She also cited multiple U.S. Codes and legal challenges showing authority of the DOJ to request and obtain such information.

On August 21, 2025 Secretary Al Schmidt responded to the DOJ request. The only aspect that he addressed was the request for the statewide voter registration list. Secretary Schmidt communicated that the records requested included personal data such as the voters PA Driver’s License numbers and the last four digits of their Social Security Numbers. He said that PA law forbids the sharing of this personally identifying information and the DOJ did not provide any legal justification to require PA to provide it. (Did he not read Ms. Dillon’s letter? It was loaded with legal citations!) Schmidt did suggest that he could provide the DOJ with the publicly available list if the DOJ agreed to the terms and conditions as set forth on the PA Department of State website.

There was no response from him regarding the additional questions or procedures requested by the DOJ, including the questions surrounding voter roll maintenance.

The DOJ is trying to confirm that Pennsylvania is complying with the voter list maintenance requirements of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and the Help America Vote Act (HAVA).

Keystone Fair Business Partners (KFBP) has been on the ground trying to push counties to improve their voter list maintenance procedures. Last year, we worked with grassroots volunteers to identify people who had moved out of Pennsylvania but were still on the voter rolls of the Commonwealth. Most did not realize that their voter registration remained active after they moved out of state. After information, instructions, and forms were mailed to these former PA residents, 28,274 non-residents sent forms to the counties of their prior residence and requested to have their registrations canceled. Grassroots efforts had a direct impact on the 2,807 Chester County and the 2,263 Delaware County registrations that were canceled at the voters’ request. Yet, as PILF’s findings as of this summer indicate, there are still almost 20,000 additional people on the PA registration list who are also registered in other states.

Our counties and the Commonwealth are clearly not maintaining the voter rolls properly and may not be complying with federal law. When a non-eligible person votes in your jurisdiction (city, township, county, or state), then your vote is diluted and doesn’t count as much as it should. That’s why the DOJ must get to the bottom of this issue with Pennsylvania. Your vote is why it matters!

As the Constitutional Convention ended in 1787, Benjamin Franklin was asked if the delegates produced a monarchy or a republic. Franklin replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.”

We are trying to keep this republic that we love and hold our representatives accountable to the people. Join us in that mission and share this Update with your contacts!