Nevada’s SOS Is Mum On Probing Possibly Illegal 2024 Votes

Nevada’s Democrat elections chief is refusing to say whether his office is investigating claims of potentially hundreds of illegal votes cast in the state’s 2024 elections, The Federalist learned.

The situation came to fruition last month, when the Nevada-based Citizen Outreach Foundation (COF) began filing election integrity violation reports (EIVR) with the office of Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar, a Democrat. These formal complaints, according to the Nevada secretary of state’s website, can be used by citizens to report alleged violations of state election law and “must set forth the alleged violation of law and identify the party responsible for the violation, as well as set forth dates and times of specific occurrences, if practicable.”

If the secretary’s office determines a violation has, in fact, occurred, an “appropriate remedy shall be provided to the extent permitted by law.” Should the elections chief determine the EIVR does not allege a violation of election law, he “may dismiss the complaint or refer it to the proper agency for resolution,” with the complainant being notified of whatever action is taken.

Speaking with The Federalist, COF President Chuck Muth said his group has filed more than 500 EIVRs with Aguilar’s office over the last month contesting votes cast by mail in the November 2024 election. Comparing voter registration records, the U.S. Postal Service’s National Change of Address database, and the state’s 2024 election records, the group claims to have determined that these ballots were returned from addresses the affiliated registrants no longer reside at.

Unlike most states, Nevada requires local clerks to automatically mail individuals listed on the state’s active voter registration list a ballot during each election cycle, according to Ballotpedia.

In the months leading up to the 2024 general election, COF filed roughly 33,000 challenges to registrants on Nevada’s voter rolls they alleged no longer reside at the residence associated with their registration file. The organization’s efforts to work with election officials to remove these allegedly unlawful registrants prior to the November contest were routinely stymied by Aguilar, whose office issued a memo in August 2024 effectively instructing local clerks to stop processing challenges filed by COF under a specific provision of state law.

The secretary’s office claimed COF lacked “personal knowledge” of the contested registrant’s eligibility, which they claimed is required under the provision used by the group to make the challenges. This was done despite Deputy Secretary of Elections Mark Wlaschin acknowledging in the memo that “‘personal knowledge’ is not explicitly defined” under the provision used by COF to file its challenges.

According to Muth, out of the 33,000 allegedly unlawful registrants contested by COF before the November election, the group has identified 881 that voted in the contest.

(See here for an example of an integrity violation report filed by COF with Aguilar’s office).

Despite its efforts to ensure only lawful votes were counted in the 2024 election, the Citizen Outreach Foundation is once again facing headwinds from Aguilar. The Democrat elections chief sent a letter to the organization on Tuesday, informing its members that “no further action will be taken” on several of the EIVRs it has already filed.

Aguilar claimed that COF is alleging “residency challenges regarding numerous voters in the State of Nevada,” and cited existing statutes governing residency challenges. He further cited the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), which he contended “limits a state’s ability to conduct general programs and activities to remove voters whose residency might have changed.”

“The SOS is unable to verify that apparent challenges submitted through the EIVR process adhere to the requirements of uniformity and non-discrimination,” Aguilar wrote. “As a result, the SOS will not be taking action on EIVRs that indicate, based on third-party data and not personal knowledge, that a voter might have changed residence.”

Speaking with The Federalist, Muth took issue with the secretary’s classification of its EIVRs as “residency challenges,” and disputed the notion that the “personal knowledge” requirement governing citizen-led voter roll challenges applies to EIVRs.

“He’s trying to say that an election integrity violation report is the same as a challenge, and they’re completely different,” Muth said. “There’s nothing in statute or code anywhere that … says that you have to have personal knowledge in order to be able to file an election violation report.”

The EIVR form provided on the secretary of state’s website does not include a “personal knowledge” requirement for individuals filing such a complaint.

The COF president also pushed back on Aguilar’s citation of the NVRA and claim that he couldn’t verify that the organization’s EIVRs complied with the federal law’s “uniform” and “nondiscriminatory” requirements. According to COF data analyst Dan Burdish, the party registrations for the 881 contested votes are: 321 Democrats, 294 Republicans, 222 Non-Partisans, 29 Independent Americans, 7 Libertarians, and 8 “others.”

“All [Aguilar] had to do was to look to see if we were filing reports only on Democrats, then he’d have a point. But we filed almost exactly the same number of reports against Republicans as we did Democrats,” Muth said. “They’re just looking for excuses not to do their job beyond the bare minimum to clean up the voter rolls.”

Muth concluded his remarks by saying that Nevadans “can’t” and “shouldn’t” have confidence in their state’s ability to run clean and transparent elections “as long as the secretary of state is blocking efforts to clean the voter rolls” and doing the “bare minimum” to comply with the NVRA.

“Under the current circumstances, there’s no reason anyone in Nevada should have any confidence that our elections are safe and secure,” Muth said.

The COF president disclosed that the organization is exploring potential legal options to compel Aguilar to act on its EIVRs.

Secretary Aguilar’s office did not respond to The Federalist’s request for comment.

For more election news and updates, visit electionbriefing.com.

Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood