Nevada’s Secretary of State said reforms are underway after scores of voters noticed irregularities in their online records, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal
Secretary Cisco Aguilar, a Democrat, said his office learned Sunday of possible technical issues that were affecting the online registration records of Nevada voters. He added in a statement Monday that his office is working to quickly resolve the problem.
Technicians who reviewed the system blamed the problem on voter registrars in certain counties not taking proper steps to update voter registration records in the statewide system. Every night, local county offices are responsible for uploading new records into the secretary of state’s database. One of the steps missed by officials was ensuring that voters who did not return a requested ballot were withheld.
“Our office has been validating new files from each county and moving them into production as soon as the accuracy of the data is verified,” the secretary of state’s office said in the statement.
Aguilar’s office added that all issues should be resolved within 48 hours and that it plans to release a comprehensive report.
“Again, this is an error that relates to the code used for when a voter is sent a mail ballot and does not return it; it has no connection in any way to vote tabulation,” the office said in a statement. “The top-down Voter Registration and Election Management System (VREMS) project at the Secretary of State’s office will go live prior to the June 2024 election, and remove the need for these outdated processes.”
Daphne Lee, a Las Vegas resident and registered Republican, told the Review-Journal she checked her online voting records on Sunday and discovered that the system showed she and her family had cast mail-in ballots in the recent Republican primary, despite them not doing so. After trying to opt out of future mail-in ballots, she was told her voter record no longer existed.
“It’s just so frustrating,” Lee said in a phone interview. “This makes everyone uncomfortable.”
The Nevada GOP added that it is in close contact with Aguilar’s office about numerous other Republican voters who reported voter files showing they cast a ballot when they had not.
“We take these reports very seriously,” said Chairman Michael McDonald, a Trump supporter. “The cornerstone of our Republic is the trust and confidence of the American people in the electoral process. Any indication of irregularities must be thoroughly investigated to ensure the integrity of our elections.”
