Investigations into election security and discrepancies have been billed as a matter of national urgency and a key component of President Trump’s agenda since he claimed the 2020 election was rigged against him.But behind the scenes, some potentially significant concerns appear to have been moving at a snail’s pace.In a September 2, 2026, letter to newly confirmed Attorney General Todd Blanche, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin has resurfaced election-related issues that DHS had already referred to the Justice Department, including questions surrounding barcode-based voting systems and the Election Registration Information Center (ERIC) and its handling of sensitive motor-vehicle data.DHS officials met with officials at the Justice Department in September 2025 regarding these concerns, but, according to Mullin’s letter, there is no indication that those referrals ever produced any sort of resolution, legal determination, or any meaningful action, begging the question: why is DHS still having to put these issues back on DOJ’s desk?The letter states that ERIC, a creation of the Pew Charitable Trust, “exposes millions of citizens’ sensitive private data to unknown contractors, subcontractors, and agents of ERIC,” noting that this exposure is potentially in violation of the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act.BREAKING — THIS IS BIG FOR ELECTION INTEGRITYA newly released September 2, 2026 letter from DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin to Attorney General Todd Blanche reveals that the Department of Homeland Security has referred major election-security concerns to the Department of… pic.twitter.com/TEZQzAoFY0— Holly Kesler (@HollyKesler) September 4, 2026The letter states:“Prior to the 2020 election, ERIC shared that sensitive, protected motor-vehicle data with at least one other private organization. The Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR) received over $70 million from the Chan Zuckerberg 501(c)(3) organization, which was used to provide grants to state election officials who agreed to turn over sensitive private data to CEIR. This sharing and resharing of Motor Vehicle Agency data among NGOs may not qualify as a permissible use of motor-vehicle data identified in the DPPA. This category of data regarding potential voters is incredibly valuable to political parties and campaigns.A primary function of ERIC appears to be identifying individuals who are potentially eligible to vote but who are currently unregistered. All eligible but unregistered (EBU) individuals identified in the state motor vehicle database are contacted and encouraged to register. The list of EBUs is created by comparing information from the statewide voter registration database to the list of all individuals in the state motor vehicle database.According to publicly available reporting, in 2020, Pennsylvania’s $13 million grant agreement from CEIR included the following terms: “Grantee agrees to cooperate with CEIR, including providing data, as CEIR reasonably requests.” The data requested included state motor vehicle data, originally shared with ERIC, to be used by CEIR to create the EBU lists for outreach. ERIC acknowledged that the EBU list is created using data that is protected by the DPPA.The ERIC model contract requires states to share “all licensing or identification records from motor vehicle departments” at least every 60 days. Despite the fact taht the MVA data will be used to identify EBUs, the model contract prohibits states from sharing data related to citizenship. The ERIC model contract provides that “[u]nder no circumstances shall the Member transmit an individual’s record where the record contains documentation or other information indicating that the individual is a non-citizen of the United States.”CEIR Proximity to ERICThe Gateway Pundit has, on numerous occasions, reported on this stipulation of ERIC’s bylaws that are published to this day on its website.Further, in February 2022, The Gateway Pundit published an article that reported on the relationship among ERIC, CEIR, and the “Zuckerbucks” for the 2020 election.The two NGOs, ERIC and CEIR, had commonality at the highest level: David Becker, who co-founded ERIC, was also the executive director of CEIR during the 2020 election.And the “Zuckerbucks” allocated to CEIR were disproportionately distributed to the key swing states in the 2020 election: Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona, and Georgia made up four of the top six recipients, with New York and New Jersey also among them, out of 23 states that received CEIR funds.Those four swing states averaged $8.75 million each. The remaining 19 states averaged $1.58 million each.And in the case of Michigan, the CEIR grant money was allocated directly to Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s private NGO, the Michigan Center for Election Law and Administration (MCELA), rather than to the Secretary of State’s office.This led to an uneven distribution of funds to two powerhouse Democrat strategy firms, Waterfront Strategies in Washington D.C. ($9.79 million), and Alper Strategies ($2.09 million).The then-President of the MCELA, Jen McKernan, during an interview with Michigan radio host Tracy Samilton, explained how the MCELA grants were used to develop a system that would remove voters from campaign-funded text message campaigns once they had been credited with returning a ballot. This would imply real-time access to the voter rolls and the system used to confirm that ballots had been received.ERIC has also acknowledged to Georgia legislators that it has previously shared data with the CEIR while the ERIC president was aware that ERIC’s former “non-voting board member” (co-founder) was also the executive director of CEIR, David Becker.Over two dozen states (29), now including “blood red” states, are being sued to hand over their election data for a first ever federal audit of the voter rolls.This is following the SSA database found to have over 440M users, despite an alleged population of 330M.The… https://t.co/OFfaSABHmJ pic.twitter.com/C4LNdAoJwT— CannCon (@canncon) March 9, 2026Colorado’s 30,000 Non-Citizens ListThe letter also states:This problem has had direct implications for our efforts to prevent alien voting. In 2022, the ERIC EBU list included 30,000 non-citizens in the State of Colorado. These 30,000 non-citizens received invitations to register from the Colorado Secretary of State. The state later identified the error and “applied several efforts to prevent or reject anyone not eligible to vote from registering.” We have serious concerns about the potential for alien registration across other states.The Gateway Pundit also reported on this issue in January 2023.And during a federal lawsuit in Colorado that The Gateway Pundit covered, Ashe Epps, a pro se defendant, questioned then-Deputy Secretary of State Chris Beall about this situation.Epps writes:“That time I made the Deputy Secretary of State explain the 30K postcard issue under oath in federal court, and he admitted that both ERIC and the Colorado Department of State KNOWINGLY deal in noncitizen voter registration. Read the last line of the second image.”That time I made the Deputy Secretary of State explain the 30K postcard issue under oath in federal court, and he admitted that both ERIC and the Colorado Department of State KNOWINGLY deal in noncitizen voter registration. Read the last line of the second image. https://t.co/gSduKKWDko pic.twitter.com/tUD2dzp77P— Ashe in America (@AsheinAmerica) September 4, 2026These concerns were serious enough for DHS to refer them to DOJ more than a year ago. Yet here we are, with a new Attorney General and DHS putting them back on the Justice Department’s desk. As two years have now passed in President Trump’s latest term and midterm elections are fast approaching, how much farther down the road does this can need to be kicked?The post BREAKING: DHS Puts ERIC in the DOJ Crosshairs Over Election Issues TGP Has Been Reporting On for Years appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.