RNC, NVGOP Files Lawsuit Claiming Five Counties Violate NVRA

This article has been updated with a statement released by RNC Chairman.

The Republican National Committee and the Nevada GOP have filed a lawsuit (see below) claiming five Nevada counties are violating the National Voting Rights Act (NVRA) by not maintaining clean and accurate voter rolls. The counties named are Carson City, Clark, Douglas, Lyon, and Storey. Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar and the respective county clerks are named as defendants in the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs allege that at least five counties in Nevada have inordinately high voter registration rates; at least three Nevada counties have more registered voters than they have adult citizens who are over the age of 18; and, an additional two counties have voter registration rates that exceed 90 percent of adult citizens over the age of 18–a figure that “far eclipses the national and statewide voter registration rate in recent elections.”

The plaintiffs further allege that “Defendants’ failure to comply with the NVRA’s voter-list maintenance obligations undermines the integrity of elections by increasing the opportunity for ineligible voters or voters intent on fraud to cast ballots” and contend that “If voter registration lists include names of voters who should no longer be on the list, the RNC may spend more resources on mailers, knocking on doors, and otherwise trying to contact voters, or it may misallocate its scarce resources among six different jurisdictions.”

Comparing the registered active voter count to the 2022 Census data the plaintiff’s note that three counties have voter registration rates at or above 100 percent: Douglas (104%), Lyon (105%), and Storey (113%) and an additional two counties have voter registration rates of 90 percent or greater: Carson City (92%) and Clark (91%). 

According to the U.S. Census Bureau,Nevada’s statewide voter registration rates for the 2022 and 2020 elections were 65.1% and 66.2% of the citizen voting-age population, respectively.

Using this data, the plaintiffs claim that “these five counties are significant outliers, touting voter registration rates 18 to 44 percentage points higher than the national figures from 2022 and 2020, and 25 to 48 percentage points above the State figures for the same period. Discrepancies on this scale cannot be attributed to above-average voter participation and instead point to deficient list maintenance,” and conclude:

“Nevada’s impossibly high registration rates, large rates of inactive registered voters, low numbers of removals, and inconsistent enforcement across counties indicate an ongoing, systemic problem with its voter-list maintenance efforts.”

RNC Chairman Michael Whatley released the following statement:

“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. 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.”

Back in December, the RNC filed a statutory notice with Secretary of State Aguilar citing the numerous NVRA violations and promised legal action if appropriate actions were not taken. This lawsuit follows his failure to respond or take any corrective action to comply with the NVRA.