Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar in late July released the latest report on election integrity violations, showing that complaints to his office have spiked, but very few people have been found to have actually broken election laws.
During the second quarter of 2024, April through June, complaints filed through the SOS’s Election Integrity Violation Report form increased nearly 600% from the previous quarter, January through March. More than nine times as many complaints were filed in the first half of 2024 than all of the previous year.
Of the 448 complaints received so far this year, more than half—279—were submitted via an automated online portal. Officials at the SOS’s office said they were “almost entirely identical, and so far have contained no evidence of violations of Title 24 [Nevada’s election laws].”
The complaints cited electioneering during early voting and Election Day, campaign spending, advertising violations and ballot concerns such as old or incorrect addresses.
“Throughout the election cycle, there have been many bad-faith attempts to undermine the security of our elections.”
Another 108 online reports and 120 email complaints focused on “vote history discrepancies” on the online voter registration portal following a data transmission error during the Presidential Preference Primary. Some voters were reported on the SOS’s website to have voted when they did not, but election officials were able to correct the data. No evidence of election violations was found in those reports, either.
Despite this, Aguilar’s office said each report is reviewed individually and treated as a separate case. The SOS has two civil investigators and one criminal investigator on staff.
“Our office is committed to ensuring Nevada voters know there is no evidence of widespread fraud, and that every single report we receive that puts that fact in question is investigated to the full extent of the law,” Aguilar said.
He added that as the 2024 presidential election nears, it’s more important to build trust among voters in the state’s elections system.
“Throughout the election cycle, there have been many bad-faith attempts to undermine the security of our elections, which does a disservice to the voter,” he said. “Disinformation disenfranchises voters by encouraging them not to trust the electoral process.”
The SOS office has already reviewed 319 of the cases submitted this year through the election integrity violation reporting system and closed 317 with no criminal or civil charges. Just two have been closed with violations.
The SOS also investigates “double votes,” in which a person attempts to cast two ballots in the same election. Each person can only vote once, so in the case of a double vote, the voter is caught before the second vote can be counted. The voter is reported to the SOS office where the case is investigated. Double voting is a felony.
This year, there have been 86 investigations into double voting — down from 152 in the 2022 general election — including three during the Presidential Preference Primary that were closed with no charges. Of the 83 double-vote investigations from the June 2024 primary, 12 were referred for criminal investigation, 12 were closed with no charges, and 59 are still being investigated.
Examples of double voting might be a person attempting to vote in person after already sending in a mail ballot or a person who votes early or by mail in Nevada before moving to another state and voting there on election day.
In some instances, a double vote could be an innocent mistake. The SOS provided an example of a father and son with the same name who live at the same address and both receive a ballot. One votes in person, and the other may mistakenly fill out the other’s mail-in ballot, resulting in a double vote. In such cases with no criminal intent, the voters receive a warning.
