LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Nevada’s prime elections official stated Tuesday he was involved about requests from the federal authorities for delicate voter knowledge.
Democratic Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar joined a digital information convention from States United Democracy Middle, a nonprofit working to “[advance] free, fair and secure elections,” in accordance with its web site.
This summer time, the U.S. Division of Justice requested dozens of states, together with Nevada, to show over their total voter recordsdata, in accordance with the Brennan Middle for Justice. In response to Democratic Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, who joined the information convention, the recordsdata embrace Social Safety numbers and delicate info.
The U.S. Structure requires every state to run its personal elections. Aguilar and Benson famous it was not clear why the DOJ needs the info or what they might do with it.
“Some parts of our voter rolls are public, but not the most personal information of residents; that data we are extremely careful to protect,” Benson stated.
Some Nevada counties, together with Clark County, publish their voter rolls on-line. Clark County voter rolls embrace a voter’s title, handle, cellphone quantity, celebration desire, and methodology of voting, amongst different info. Clark County additionally offers inactive voter rolls and different election knowledge.
The primary DOJ request for Nevada got here on June 25, in accordance with the Brennan Middle.
“These requests from the DOJ are not normal,” Aguilar stated.
Aguilar cited Nevada’s current cyberattack, saying he can not hand over delicate info in good religion.
“We need more transparency from the federal government about why they’re making these requests. We talk about transparency all the time in our elections. We work hard every day to ensure there’s transparency. There’s no difference in why the federal government can’t be transparent in their request: what they’re going to do with this data and how they’re going to secure it before we hand it over?”
In 2021, the Nevada Legislature handed a legislation requiring the Secretary of State’s Workplace to create a statewide voter system quite than every county having its personal database. The brand new system was anticipated to hurry up in-person check-in and same-day registration.
The brand new voter registration and administration system price the state $30 million.
Following the 2020 election, President Donald Trump and Nevada Republicans cited allegations of widespread fraud. All of their allegations misplaced in court docket, together with one citing out-of-state residents voting within the election. The voters had been really navy households and college students who’re legally allowed to vote in Nevada.
Despite the fact that Trump misplaced the 2020 election, Republicans gained seats within the Nevada Legislature.
No candidate filed election-related lawsuits in both 2022 or 2024 when Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo received the gubernatorial race and when Trump received re-election.
