The U.S. Justice Department has issued subpoenas to the Nevada secretary of state seeking voter information, as part of intensified efforts to investigate allegations of voter fraud ahead of the November midterm elections. Cisco Aguilar, Nevada’s secretary of state and chief election officer, confirmed that his office has received seven subpoenas related to voter data from FBI agents over the past three months, but declined to provide further specifics.

It remains unclear whether similar subpoenas have been sent to other states. The U.S. attorney in Nevada, Sigal Chatta—known for a pro-Trump stance and efforts to question election integrity—would oversee such requests.

The subpoenas are occurring amid a broader federal push, led by the Trump administration, to uncover what it describes as widespread voter fraud, claims that have faced widespread skepticism from experts and officials who note that instances of election fraud in the United States are extremely rare. The administration has deployed hundreds of investigators nationwide to probe voter rolls and has increasingly pressed state election offices to provide private voter information. In reaction, approximately two dozen states have filed lawsuits challenging the federal government’s actions as exceeding its constitutional authority, given that election regulation traditionally falls to the states and Congress.

Aguilar criticized the federal approach, emphasizing the constitutional right to vote and cautioning against undermining it with unsubstantiated fraud claims. “The federal administration is inundating elections offices with investigation and questions ahead of the election, and making sweeping claims of election fraud to the public before any investigation is done,” Aguilar said, pledging Nevada’s commitment to administering a secure and transparent election.

This recent round of subpoenas follows earlier efforts by the Justice Department to obtain unredacted voter files from Nevada and 29 other states through legal action. Most of these lawsuits, including Nevada’s, have been dismissed by judges. Beyond Nevada, the federal government has pursued multiple strategies to restrict mail-in voting and identify allegedly ineligible noncitizen voters, including requesting extensive voter data under programs managed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

DHS has spearheaded a large-scale operation deploying hundreds of agents to investigate voter rolls for evidence of illegal voting by noncitizens. Officials have sought the cooperation of state election officials to upload detailed voter information—including Social Security numbers and other personal data—into a federal immigration security system known as SAVE, which assists in verifying citizenship status.

Nevada has been a focal point of these efforts. In July, President Trump highlighted Nevada among four states purported to have thousands of noncitizen registrations, a claim he offered without presenting evidence. The administration initially asserted that 15,903 noncitizens were registered to vote in Nevada, contributing to a total of 278,000 across the four states. However, DHS officials acknowledged in recent communications with state election authorities that only about 185 potential noncitizens had been identified in Nevada to date, with the larger figure described as a “ceiling” rather than a confirmed count.

A spokesperson for the Justice Department did not immediately provide comments on the subpoenas. With the midterm elections approaching, tension remains high over federal-state conflicts regarding voter data access and election oversight.