Nevada election chief blocks inspection of suspect voter names in swing state

(The Daily Signal) – Nevada’s top election official told local election directors not to investigate the names of thousands of people who left the state but remain on its voter rolls.

The watchdog group Citizens Outreach Foundation recently sued four jurisdictions in Nevada to force a review of the voter registration lists. 

The plaintiff, responding to an August memo from the office of Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar, a Democrat, asks that the court order the local offices to process or review challenges to some voters’ names.

In what Citizens Outreach Foundation President Chuck Muth calls a “David vs. Goliath” battle, the Left’s well-financed big guns have intervened to fight any efforts to maintain the accuracy of voter lists. Those big guns include Democratic superlawyer Marc Elias and the American Civil Liberties Union.

The foundation flagged the suspect names using data from voter registration files and the U.S. Postal Service’s change-of-address list.

“Several counties had started to process the challenges, until the secretary of state memo,” Muth told The Daily Signal. “After that, they said that in light of the secretary’s memo, we are not going to process.”

Litigation was the last resort, Muth said, asserting that election clerks “got caught between a rock and a hard place.” 

The Citizen Outreach Foundation is suing the state’s largest jurisdiction, Clark County, which includes Las Vegas. The suit also targets Washoe County, Carson City, and Storey County.

The foundation established what it calls the Pigpen Project, aimed at cleaning Nevada’s voter registration rolls. It’s critical that election offices process challenges in order to flag mail-in ballots from ineligible voters, Muth said. 

The organization initially flagged just under 4,000 names for election clerks in late July. After findings in late August and early September, the total number of suspect names on Nevada’s voter rolls is about 33,000 statewide, Muth said. 

The check was only for those who moved out of state, Muth noted. His foundation didn’t look into potential noncitizens or deceased voters on the rolls, he said. 

“We cannot comment due to ongoing litigation,” a spokesperson for the Nevada Secretary of State’s Office said in an email to The Daily Signal.

The office’s August memo to election officials was written by Mark A. Wlaschin, deputy secretary for elections in the Nevada secretary of state’s office. The memo argued that any challenge must include “personal knowledge” about each individual voter it disputes. 

“Recently, individuals have submitted challenges based on their ‘personal knowledge’ obtained from their review of data from databases or compilations of information,” Wlaschin told election clerks in the memo.

The memo continues: “County clerks who receive these challenges should reject them and instruct challengers that personal knowledge gained through firsthand experience or observation of the facts relating to a voter’s eligibility is necessary to file a valid challenge under either statute. In the absence of such firsthand, personal knowledge showing a voter’s eligibility, these challenges should be rejected.”

Muth said Nevada’s definition of “personal knowledge” is a ridiculous standard. His organization argues that government sources—in this case the U.S. Postal Service and state voter rolls—meet the legal standard.

Nevada is one of the most fiercely contested states in the Nov. 5 election, and only about two percentage points separated candidates in the last two presidential races in the state. 

In 2020, Democrat Joe Biden beat Republican Donald Trump by about 33,000 votes statewide. Trump fell short by 27,000 votes against Democrat Hillary Clinton in the state in 2016. In the current race, Democrat Kamala Harris leads Trump by 1.1% in the Real Clear Politics polling average.

The first court hearing in the case won’t happen until Oct. 23, Muth said. 

“At this point, we are likely stuck as far as 2024 goes,” he said. “We want to have this sorted out going forward to 2026.”

The first case asks Nevada’s First Judicial Court “to compel the Carson City and Storey County [election] clerks to perform their duties … by requiring the clerks to notify the registrant of the challenge and take the necessary actions as required under NRS [Nevada Revised Statutes] 293.530,” the complaint says. 

In an email response to The Daily Signal, Carson City Recorder Scott Hoen wrote: “I am following NRS and the secretary of state has given me clear processes to follow.”

Storey County Clerk and Treasurer Jim Hindle referred questions on the cases to the office of the county’s district attorney, which didn’t immediately respond to The Daily Signal. 

A Clark County spokesperson said in an email:  “The county is unable to comment on pending litigation.”

Election officials in Washoe County didn’t respond to a request for comment before publication time. 

The ACLU of Nevada filed a motion Tuesday to intervene in the Washoe County case, arguing that removing names from the voter rolls fewer than 90 days before an election would violate the 1993 National Voter Registration Act. 

“This isn’t just about Washoe County. We’re seeing similar voter purge attempts across the country, targeting voters with flawed data and reckless methods,” ACLU of Nevada Executive Director Athar Haseebullah said in a public statement. “It’s a coordinated national plan with the same goal: to make it harder for people to vote. We’re standing up against this nationwide attack on voting rights and ensuring every eligible voter can cast their ballot.”

A judge granted motions to intervene in the cases filed by left-leaning groups RISE, a youth activist group; the Institute for a Progressive Nevada; and the Nevada Alliance for Retired Americans, according to Democracy Docket, an organization established by Elias, the Democratic election lawyer. 

Democracy Docket featured the Nevada cases on its website and in an email newsletter, asserting: “Pro-voter organizations stepped in to defend four Nevada counties from right-wing lawsuits trying to require the counties to process tens of thousands of voter challenges, saying the move would cause ‘electoral chaos’ as ballots are already being sent out.”

A Democracy Docket spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to an inquiry from The Daily Signal about this report. 

Noting that Elias has represented the presidential campaigns of Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and John Kerry, Muth said the attorney now represents the liberal groups in the case against the Citizen Outreach Foundation. 

“And yesterday, District Court Judge James Russell granted Elias’ request to intervene in the lawsuits,” Muth wrote of the Pigpen Project, referring to Elias’ representing liberal organizations. “So now our little Nevada nonprofit organization is going up against various County Clerks/Registrars, their District Attorneys, the Nevada Secretary of State, the Nevada Attorney General … and Marc Elias. Talk about David vs. Goliath.”