Nevada’s secretary of state this week said her office found no evidence supporting claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election.
Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, a Republican, informed the Nevada GOP that a review of records it provided to her office supporting fraud claims showed some of the incidents were already under investigation while others were not interpreted properly.
State officials said the Nevada GOP reported having 122,918 records supporting fraud allegations but that they identified only 3,963 unique election integrity violation reports, which they counted along with three business cards and a USB drive.
The reporters asserted, among other claims, that nearly 17,000 voters were registered at fake addresses or commercial addresses and that nearly 2,500 voters relocated to another state or outside the country in the month leading up to the 2020 election.
“Our investigation revealed that these allegations and others are based largely upon an incomplete assessment of voter registration records and lack of information,” said Mark Wlaschin, Cegavske’s deputy secretary for elections, wrote in a letter to the state’s Republican Party.
“And while the NVGOP raises policy concerns about the integrity of mail-in voting, automatic voter registration, and same-day voter registration, these concerns do not amount to evidentiary support for the contention that the 2020 general election was plagued by widespread voter fraud.”
“It was essential that we took the time to fully evaluate each complaint and to make a determination based on the merits of each report,” added Cegavske in a statement.
However, the letter notes that many of the allegations were not investigated or were dismissed through statistical analyses, instead of a review of each allegation.
Nevada officials said they were not able to probe allegations that illegal immigrants voted in the 2020 election because federal courts have ruled election officials cannot require documentary proof of citizenship as a condition of voter registration. Nevada Republican officials had alleged 3,987 illegal aliens may have voted in the election.
Cegavske’s office said that a person’s affirmation that he or she is legally allowed to vote “is sufficient to establish U.S. citizenship for purposes of voter registration,” adding: “Without specific evidence to establish that identified individuals were foreign nationals when they voted in the November 3 election, there is nothing further that can be investigated.”
The office also brushed aside data showing people who filed permanent change of address notifications with the U.S. Post Office but still received mail ballots for the election, alleging it was “probable” that many of people keep claiming Nevada as their permanent residence even if they “are temporarily located outside of the state” and that the issue does not warrant further investigation unless there are “particularized allegations and detailed evidence of voter fraud.”
And the office said it did not have adequate staffing to conduct in-person investigations of the 8,842 Nevada voters who listed a commercial address, which is in violation of the law if the applicant does not live there. Instead, they conducted a statistical analysis, which showed there were nine addresses that do not have an attached living space. Those cases were referred to clerks and registrars for a more in-depth look.
A similar analysis was conducted on a referral of over 8,000 voters having non-existent addresses. That analysis found most were valid residences, and the office declined to investigate further.
Reports that some Clark County election workers were told to accept out-of-state drivers’ licenses will not be probed because Nevada’s Department of Motor Vehicles did not offer its normal range of services, the letter states. The complaint “does not merit further investigation because the allegations are not indicative of voter fraud,” it said.
The office also said trying to verify the in-state residency of a separate set of more than 15,000 voters “is unreasonable, as it is not likely to lead to the discovery of evidence of a crime or a violation of Nevada election law.”
Ten cases of people being dead but having ballots cast in their name and 10 people who allegedly cast duplicate votes are being investigated by law enforcement. Counties are checking on 2,828 other possible double votes.
The Nevada GOP did not respond to a request for comment.
The Nevada GOP censured Cegavske earlier this month, accusing her of failing to investigate all potential fraudulent votes in the 2020 election and issuing “irresponsible public statements regarding the fairness” of the election.
In response, the election official said, “My job is to carry out the duties of my office as enacted by the Nevada Legislature, not carry water for the state GOP or put my thumb on the scale of democracy.”
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