Republican National Committee files lawsuit for election integrity in Nevada

The Republican National Committee (RNC) and the Nevada Republican Party (NVGOP) filed an election integrity lawsuit on Monday against Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar alleging the state has failed to maintain accurate voter rolls and is failing to comply with the National Voter Registration Act.

“Election integrity starts with clean voter rolls, and that’s why the National Voter Registration Act requires state officials to keep their rolls accurate and up-to-date,” RNC Chair Michael Whatley said in a statement.

The lawsuit contends that three Nevada counties – Douglas, Lyon and Storey – have more registered voters than adults over 18, and that five other counties have “suspiciously high rates” of registered voters.

“Nevada has universal mail voting and no voter ID requirement, which makes Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar’s failure to comply with the NVRA and provide accurate voter rolls all the more concerning. Securing clean voter rolls in Nevada is a critical step towards ensuring that it will be easy to vote and hard to cheat,” Whatley’s statement continued.

The RNC’s lawsuit makes good on a threat it leveled in December saying that it would take legal action if Aguilar did not address their concerns. In January, the Secretary of State’s office responded to the initial letter saying, “the sole basis for your allegation of non-compliance with the NVRA is a statistical analysis of registration rates that relies on incomparable data.” Writing on behalf of the Secretary of State, Senior Deputy Attorney General Laena St-Jules went on to describe the Republican’s analysis of perceived voter irregularities as “comparing apples to orangutans.”

Nevada has emerged as a battleground state that Republicans would like to bring back into their fold following four consecutive presidential election loses dating back to 2008. Republicans last carried the state in 2004.