(WASHINGTON) — The office of Nevada’s Secretary of State announced in a new report Monday that there was “no evidence of widespread voter fraud in Nevada” in recent years, saying a large volume of election fraud reports that the office received did not involve any actual violation of election law.
Produced as a part of the state’s new quarterly election investigations, the report details different probes the Secretary of State’s office has conducted to ensure the integrity of the state’s election system and to increase transparency of the process.
The report details findings from and status of different election investigations the office has conducted since 2020, including the number of cases that have been referred for prosecution, “double vote” cases the office caught, and election fraud reports the office has received and investigated.
According to the report, only 14 cases were referred for possible prosecution since 2020 — including nine cases from 2020 and five from 2022.
The report details 146 “double vote” cases from 2022 that the Secretary of State’s Office investigated — instances in which two votes were cast by one voter. In Nevada, attempting to vote twice is a felony.
Three of the cases the office investigated were referred for prosecution to the state Attorney General’s Office, 44 were referred for further investigation to the state Department of Public Safety’s Investigation Division, and 29 cases were investigated by the Secretary of State’s criminal investigations team but were closed by the office without further action, according to the report.
Fifteen cases were closed after civil notice, 29 cases were closed with no action and 26 cases remain open for possible cases of cross-state voting.
The report says the 146 double vote cases represent 0.0001% of the more than one million ballots cast in the 2022 general election in Nevada.
And from the 2024 presidential primary in February, six cases were investigated, with two remaining open investigations in the Secretary of State’s Office and four closed with no violation.
Additionally, Nevada’s Secretary of State Office reported receiving a total of 100 Election Integrity Violation Reports since 2023, with 33 cases still open, 67 cases closed with no violation and zero cases found with any violation.
The report was released as a part of the Nevada Secretary of State’s effort to increase transparency with the office’s election integrity efforts as the office continues to receive a large volume of complaints alleging election fraud.
“There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in Nevada, at any point in our state’s history,” Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar wrote in a statement with the release of the report. “That has not stopped the Secretary of State’s Office from receiving a major increase in questions about election fraud and integrity.”
Stressing that none of the reported cases have so far shown any violation, Aguilar said his office gets a slew of reported cases of election fraud partly due to the public’s lack of understanding of the law and partly because of “attempts to overwhelm” his team during an election cycle.
“We receive a large number of reports that did not consist of any actual violation of election law,” Aguilar continued. “This happens for a number of reasons; from a lack of understanding of the law to attempts to overwhelm our office during an election cycle with unfounded allegations. Regardless, we take every allegation seriously and investigate them to the full extent of the law.”
The Nevada Secretary of State’s Office fully staffed its investigations team earlier this year after an additional budget for the team was approved in the 2023 legislative session. The team consists of two civil investigators and one criminal investigator, with additional support from the rest of the office.
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.