Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske on Wednesday released a detailed report responding to boxes of alleged evidence, provided by the Nevada GOP, of voter fraud.
She said there was little to no evidence to support what Nevada Republicans said were de facto cases of voter fraud. Most all allegations were unsubstantiated, could be explained by residency requirements or were simply unfounded, Cegasvske said.
“On March 4, 2021, members of the Nevada GOP…delivered four boxes to the Capitol building in Carson City,” she said in a letter to the Republicans. “Over the following weeks, the elections staff inventoried and labeled the boxes and their contents and investigated the accompanying allegations of voter fraud. This consumed more than 125 hours of staff time.”
Although the Republicans said there were more than 122,000 records to support their fraud allegations, Cegasvke’s office found less than 4,000 records that were identified as “Elections Integrity Violation Reports (EIVRs). Our investigation into these documents revealed that some incidents were already under investigation. These involved discrete, readily verifiable events.”
Some cases of alleged double voting were referred to law enforcement or local registrars of voters for address verification. Many allegations of impropriety, such as out of state voters voting in Nevada, can be explained, Cegavske said, by simple situations involving address changes, deaths or permanent versus temporary residencies — college students attending schools out of state, for example.
“There are reasons why a Nevada-registered voter may permanently or temporarily live out of state, including to attend college or to satisfy military orders,” Cegasvke’s report said. “This request to verify the Nevada residency of more than 15,000 individuals is unreasonable, as it is not likely to lead to the discovery of evidence of a crime or a violation of Nevada election law.”
Cegavske, a Republican who was recently censured by Nevada Republicans for allegedly failing to uphold voter fraud allegations, said evidence was scant in support of their claims.
“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,” she said.
In response to getting censured by the GOP, she responded:
“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.
“Unfortunately, members of my own party continue to believe the 2020 general election was wrought with fraud — and that somehow I had a part in it — despite a complete lack of evidence to support that belief.”
