Federal agents reviewed scores of voter-registration Nonprofits.

Federal investigators reviewed scores of nonprofit groups this spring in a search for noncitizen voting, and weighed sending undercover agents to engage with organizations suspected of registering noncitizens, according to internal Homeland Security reports released on Wednesday, October 7. The advocacy group Democracy Forward obtained the records through a records request, States Newsroom reported. CNN described the release as 166 pages of records.

The reports come from Homeland Security Investigations, the investigative division of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and give weekly updates from May and June on its search for noncitizens who registered or voted illegally. For anyone who runs a voter registration drive, the most useful pages are the ones about nonprofits.

What the reports say about nonprofits

A June 1 report, which HSI staff circulated by email on Friday, June 5, has a section headed "Research Updates - Nonprofit and NGO Review." It says 82 nongovernmental organizations had been reviewed in Pennsylvania, and that the Pennsylvania chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations was flagged for further investigation.

In New Jersey, the same report says research was completed on about 41 groups that engage in voter registration, which investigators found on Candid and Cause IQ, two databases of nonprofit information, plus three more found through open-source research. The report says no derogatory information was found on any of them in the records systems it checked.

The report also describes research on 20 of 56 funds linked to a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit it calls Assets Under Movement, also known as the Amalgamated Foundation. The report notes that the foundation is a client of Community Building Strategies, an Ohio company the report connects to Black Fork Strategies, which it says is suspected of voter registration fraud in Ohio. No suspicious financial activities or derogatory information were identified in those 20 funds, according to the report. Research had begun on 22 more of Community Building Strategies' clients, including Education Minnesota, Faith in Minnesota, ISAIAH and Detroit Action, and 26 organizations flagged through a tip line were under review.

Many of the reviews turned up no evidence of wrongdoing, CNN reported. In Ohio, it said, HSI and the FBI were developing plans by late May involving seven companies they described as "consolidation centers" associated with Black Fork Strategies, which CNN called a progressive canvassing firm. On June 8, ICE told senior officials that agents planned to execute federal search warrants and interview more than 100 current and former employees. The records do not explicitly name Black Fork as the target, CNN reported, but three days later federal agents raided the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, a progressive organizing group with extensive ties to Black Fork.

Undercover agents were considered

The June 1 report says investigators would work to identify organizations suspected of registering noncitizens and encouraging them to vote, and explore whether to deploy undercover agents. Organizations in New Jersey and Pennsylvania remained areas of focus. "If an organization is found to be actively recruiting illegal aliens for voter registration, UC assets may be used to gather evidence, disrupt activities, and trace financial backing and support structures," the report says. UC stands for undercover.

The reports also show the scale of the data behind the effort. The June 1 report lists 50.6 million records taken in from a Justice Department dataset and 48.4 million records that it says Heather Honey obtained through independent sources. The document does not identify those sources, CNN noted. CNN identified Honey as a senior counselor to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. By late May, CNN reported, HSI had opened 418 voter-fraud cases and made 64 administrative arrests, and 318 of those cases had not been referred for prosecution.

Noncitizen voting is rare, studies have consistently found, according to States Newsroom, which noted that the Justice Department has brought a few dozen cases this year.

What the groups and the department said

"Our voter registration program follows all applicable voter registration rules and requirements," Ahmet Selim Tekelioglu, executive director of CAIR Pennsylvania, said in a statement reported by States Newsroom.

Monica Byron, president of the educators union Education Minnesota, said the union learned of the investigation on Tuesday, October 6, because of Democracy Forward. "We do not know the details of any investigation into our union, but we will not be deterred in encouraging all eligible members to exercise their right to vote in the upcoming election," she said.

Homeland Security did not address States Newsroom's specific questions. "HSI investigates allegations of criminal activity, including unlawful voter registration or voting by noncitizens in federal elections," an unsigned department statement said. A spokesperson said in a statement to CNN: "DHS and DOJ are laser focused on prosecuting and removing aliens who vote and preventing the dilution of the votes of US citizens."

Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, said in a statement to CNN: "It appears the president and his allies want to pick their voters, as opposed to the way things are supposed to function in a democracy where voters pick their leaders."

What any group that registers voters can take from this

A charity can run nonpartisan voter registration during an election, as our story on hosting a candidate forum explains. In our view, the records point to four habits worth having in place before the November 3 election.

1. Assume your public profile is being read. In New Jersey, investigators found groups to review through the nonprofit databases Candid and Cause IQ. Keep the program descriptions on your website and in your Form 990 accurate and current.
2. Know your vendors. The report connects the Amalgamated Foundation to the Ohio inquiry through a company it is a client of, and found nothing in the funds it checked. Ask any canvassing firm how it hires, trains and checks its workers, and get the answers in writing.
3. Follow your state's rules for registration drives, and keep the proof. Keep records of training, how forms are handled and when they are turned in.
4. Decide who takes the call. Agree now on which staff member responds if an investigator contacts you, and have a lawyer's number ready.