The Republican National Committee and Nevada Republican Party have filed a lawsuit against Democratic Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar over irregularities in the voter rolls. The lawsuit claims that several counties in Nevada have more registered voters than eligible voters, which they argue violates the National Voter Registration Act (NRA). However, the Secretary of State's office denies the allegations, saying that the lawsuit relies on bad data.
"In Nevada, there are several counties, five actually, that have close to or over 100 percent of their eligible citizenry registered to vote," said Republican National Committee Senior Counsel for Election Integrity Christina Bobb.
According to a lawsuit, three counties - Douglas, Lyon, and Storey - have a higher number of registered voters on their rolls than the number of eligible voters. Additionally, the lawsuit claims that two other jurisdictions - Carson City and Clark County - have a voter registration rate of more than 90% of the total adult population.
"We're just asking the Secretary of State to clean the voter rolls. Please double-check and make sure specifically for the active voters who are either deceased or have moved out of those respective counties. That's all we're asking: If they're dead or not living there anymore, please just take them off the rolls," said Bobb.
The state argues that the statistical analysis used in the lawsuit, which is based on two datasets, the U.S. Census Bureau's Current Population Survey (CPS) and the 2017-2021 5-year Citizen Voting Age Population (CVAP), is like comparing "apples to orangutans."
"When you're making decisions, the data has to be consistent, and when you're picking what data to use as a comparison, and they're not aligned in any way, you can't make legal arguments based on that bad data,' said (D-NV) Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar.
In a December letter, lawyers from the Nevada Attorney General's office discredited the statistical evidence, calling it "highly flawed."
The CPS voter registration rates are crude estimates based on historical recall, obtained through personal or telephone interview, intended for an entirely different purpose.5As if relying on self-report and memory were not bad enough, respondents generally also reported on the registration status of other members of the household.6People often do not know their own voter registration status, let alone the status of others in their household. However, the accuracy of this data relies on individuals accurately reporting the historical registration status of every member of their household. Adding to this, the survey data is obtained from approximately 54,000 households nationwide.7While we were unable to identify the precise number of Nevada households surveyed, based on Nevada’s 2023 population ranking of 32 among the 50 states, with less than 1% of the U.S. population,8 it stands to reason that fewer than 1,000 Nevada households were surveyed.
Under Federal law, states cannot systematically remove ineligible voters from their rolls 90 days before an election. This year, Nevada's only window to do so is between the primary on June 11th and the general election on November 5th.
"We enter a blackout period where we can't update the voter rolls, and we're getting very close to that. And, one: the intent is to ensure that we are not disenfranchising any voter from having an opportunity to participate. The clerks have their schedules, they know what those schedules are, they know their responsibility, and I'm confident they're doing a great job," explained Aguilar.
The lawsuit also files complaints against five local election officials, most of whom are Republican. However, the Nevada GOP says the lawsuit is not aimed at the clerks.
"The fault is certainly not with the clerks in these counties, just due to the way that the law is, they have to be named in the suit, but the fault is really with bad and cumbersome regulations from the Secretary of State and from the Nevada Legislature that has set the system that these clerks must work within," said Republican National Committeemen for Nevada Jim Degraffenreid.
The GOP is asking the judge to find Nevada in violation of the Nevada Voter Registration Act (NVRA), which would require the state to amend its voter registration laws to simplify the process of purging voter rolls.
However, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) reports that Nevada’s active voter registration rate has been consistently below the national average.
As we have been reporting, Nevada is currently in the process of modernizing its voter registration system through the Voter Registration and Election Management Solution Project, or VREMS. Instead of each of Nevada's 17 counties maintaining an individual database, the new system will offer one centralized database for the entire state presided over by the office of the Secretary of State. This type of system is widely considered a best practice for maintaining accurate voter rolls.
The is a complicated issue that we will continue to follow.Â
