Mike Lee

Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson said in an episode of “60 Minutes” over the weekend that the real threat to state elections is not voter fraud but the federal government.

The U.S. Department of Justice notified Henderson in September she is being investigated as Utah’s chief election officer for refusing to share private voter information.

Federal agencies did not provide “very good answers” about what they would do with voters’ Social Security numbers, full birth dates and driver’s license numbers, she said.

Henderson reiterated that Utah elections are secure but acknowledged that elections have faced “external” pressure from non-state actors, like cyberattacks, in recent years.

“Now we also have threats coming from within our own government,” she told “60 Minutes” host Lesley Stahl.

In an interview with the Deseret News, U.S. Sen. Mike Lee defended the federal inquiries, which he said are an effort to ensure elections are conducted according to federal law.

Under President Donald Trump, the Justice Department has sued 30 states, including Utah, for full access to state voter rolls to verify no noncitizens are being allowed to vote.

“The acceptable number of illegal votes cast in U.S. elections is zero,” Lee told the Deseret News.

Trump administration officials sued California election officials last week, seeking to bar them from counting mail-in ballots from 20,000 “likely” noncitizens.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for central California announced on Monday it had arrested 11 foreign nationals who are charged with fraudulently participating in elections. They were among 28 green card holders who were charged with federal crimes over registering to vote.

Federal law enforcement gave California the list of suspected noncitizens and asked the state to verify the citizenship of all individuals before counting mail-in ballots.

An audit by the Utah Lieutenant Governor’s Office has found more than 100 noncitizens on state voter rolls and around 3,400 individuals whose status could not be verified.

New Jersey officials revealed last month they had 6,600 noncitizens on their rolls and about 340 had voted.

“Regardless of how prevalent it might be in any state ... we need to go out of our way to address known vulnerabilities,” Lee said. “It’s unreasonable to oppose it.”

Since entering office in 2021, Henderson has been an advocate of Utah’s near-universal vote-by-mail system that makes it an outlier for Republican-led states.

Election security hawks have criticized Henderson for dismissing Republican concerns that emerged from Trump’s unproven claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

On Sunday, Henderson said postal workers intercepted a threatening letter with white powder, similar to envelopes received by more than a dozen election offices last week.

Henderson was asked during her “60 Minutes” appearance about Trump and cabinet officials saying election officials the administration deems derelict should be prosecuted.

“We’re not going to prison,” Henderson said. “It’s silly.”

Henderson said she will do what she thinks is right whatever the consequences. It is her job, she said, to maintain the constitutional guardrails around state control of elections.

Candidates graciously conceding their losses will do more than election reforms, heightened rhetoric and legal action to increase trust in outcomes, according to Henderson.

Stakes are high for the upcoming midterm elections.

Republicans are expected to lose majority control in one or both chambers of Congress, according to historical trends of parties faring poorly when they are in the White House.

If Democrats take the legislative branch, they will spend the next few years waging impeachment battles against Trump and his cabinet officials, Lee told the Deseret News.

Ahead of November, Trump told GOP leadership his priority was passing Lee’s SAVE America Act which would require photo ID and proof of citizenship to vote in federal races.

Lee has pushed tirelessly for a Senate vote but was stymied by filibuster rules. Some worry Trump will dispute election results on the grounds the bill did not become law.

“I don’t think that’s the plan; I’m not going to speak for the Trump administration,” Lee said. “It’s not what I understand the Trump administration position to be.”

The importance of passing “reasonable” improvements to election security, Lee said, extends beyond the midterms.