U.S. House committee questions Nevada voter history glitch

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A U.S. House committee is asking the Nevada Secretary of State’s Office to explain what caused an error last month that led to incorrect information appearing on voter registration histories.

In a letter dated Monday, House Committee on House Administration Chairman Rep. Bryan Steil, a Wisconsin Republican, asked Democratic Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar to identify what caused the coding error and what state leaders are doing to prevent future errors ahead of the June primary and November general elections.

As the 8 News Now Investigators reported on Monday, Feb. 19, a technical issue caused primary mail-in ballots across Nevada to show as counted even though voters had not mailed those ballots or even voted.

The glitch did not impact the vote tabulation or alter the primary results, the congressman noted in his letter and Aguilar said in a statement afterward.

“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,” Steil wrote. “For Americans to have confidence in our elections, they do not need a zero-mistake system but instead one where mistakes are identified and corrected. 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.”

“No voter should ever look at the Secretary of State’s website and see inaccurate information,” Aguilar said in February. “This was a technical error that should not have happened, resulting from a patchwork, bottom-up voter registration system that has long needed to be replaced. I have made it a priority to modernize our system and bring the Voter Registration and Elections Management System (VREMS) online before the June 2024 primary election.”

The chairman gave the state until March 22 to respond.

County clerks mail ballots to registered voters. For the February presidential primaries, only registered Democrats or Republicans received a ballot for their respective party. February’s voter history glitch had nothing to do with vote tabulation, which happens at the county level.

Nevada is one of several states with universal mail balloting. Voters can choose to vote in person or by mail early or in person on Election Day. Registered voters can also opt out of receiving a mail-in ballot.

Voters can review their voting history on the secretary of state’s website and also opt in or opt out of voting by mail.

Former President Donald Trump was not on the Republican primary ballot as Nevada GOP leadership had said only the caucus winner would receive delegates, which would go toward the national nominating convention.

Measures the Nevada Legislature put in place in 2021, alongside the mail-in voting law, scrubbed voter rolls of non-eligible and deceased voters. The legislature also required better communication between counties and the state on voter registration and voter lists.

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