SOS Aguilar Responds To House Inquiry on Primary ‘Glitch’

Committee on House Administration Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wisconsin, sent a letter to Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar (D) with questions and concerns related to the Presidential Preference Primary (PPP) ‘glitch’ that occurred in February.

After the glitch, Secretary of State Aguilar issued an apology, blamed a technical error, and noted that “Nevada has a long history of secure, fair, and accessible elections…Voters should have absolute confidence in the entire election process.”

In the letter, Steil notes “Americans deserve to have confidence in their elections, which means a transparent election system where mistakes are identified and corrected…While I am pleased to hear that the errors likely had no impact on the reported results of the primary election, incidents like these not only undermine public trust, but also jeopardize the foundational principles of freedom, fairness, and security of our electoral systems.”

“With the proper procedures in place to find and correct election errors, voters will have the confidence necessary to have faith in the election results,” Steil wrote. “Furthermore, as we approach the general election in November, voters need the confidence that this error will not repeat itself.”

The Review-Journal further reports:

Steil asked Aguilar to provide a response by March 22 that includes what the office has learned from the coding error and ensure that all election officials take proper steps, further train them on nightly voter registration update protocols, and minimize further errors during the state’s transition to its new voter registration database.

Today, Aguilar responded (see below) with the assurance that “Nevada will continue to run some of the most secure, accessible, and fair elections in the country,” avoided answering the requests by Steil made above, and criticized the lack of funding for election management and administration.

“Having skilled, dedicated workers as well as “consistent, strategic funding” are the two most important things in election administration, Aguilar said.

“Elections are critical infrastructure, they are how our citizenry makes their voices heard, and their security is of paramount importance,” Aguilar wrote. “When local election officials bring you their very real concerns around resources available for elections, ‘Congress doesn’t have extra money lying around right now’ is not an appropriate response.”

Yet, numerous election officials and employees shared their concerns exclusively with The Globe.

When a source was asked about the PPP glitch, the source fired back, “The SOS threw the clerks under the bus. Yet, without one of the county clerks figuring out what happened, over a holiday weekend, who would have figured it out? The clerks are elected officials and the SOS has decided he wants to take control away from these elected election officials and centralize any and all power within his office,” adding, “Aguilar just passed new election regulations without county input. For example, our contingency plans for elections, in case something goes wrong, now has to be approved by his office. Our contingency plans didn’t need approval by the SOS in the past.”

Their complaints were then captured in a letter to the Secretary of State who then delayed the implementation of the system to July from April.

This system, prescribed by Assembly Bill 422 which was passed in the 2021 legislature, “will make our elections more consistent across all 17 counties and increase transparency in voter data,” Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar said.

In order to provide transparency to Nevada’s elections, the RNC and the Nevada GOP filed three separate public records requests this week for related information, including internal/external communications of the Secretary of State’s office, in relation to the glitchy primary.

The Globe will continue to follow the validation of the VREMS system and its speedy implementation.