Nevada Court Dismisses RNC Challenge to State’s Voter Rolls

Four women of various demographics, young blonde woman in front, filling in ballots and casting votes in booths at polling station, US flag on wall at back. (Adobe Stock)

A district court dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Republican National Committee (RNC), the Nevada Republican Party and a voter challenging the state’s maintenance of its voter rolls. This is the second time the lawsuit has been dismissed.

District Judge Cristina Silva ruled that the plaintiffs did not have standing to bring the case and that it was too close to the election to order any changes that could systematically remove voters from the rolls.

In March, the plaintiffs sued Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar (D) and five local election officials claiming the state isn’t sufficiently maintaining its voter rolls. They alleged that at least three counties have more registered voters than they do adults over the voting age of 18. 

The lawsuit also alleged that two other Nevada counties have voter registration rates that exceeded their voting-age population. The RNC accused the state of violating Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act because the only explanation for such inaccurate numbers is poorly maintained voter rolls. 

In a motion to dismiss the case, lawyers for Aguilar and local election officials said the RNC’s lawsuit was based on “misleading data” and that their accusations that Nevada’s poor voter roll maintenance has led to voter fraud were “too generalized and speculative to confer standing.” 

In August Aguilar launched a new statewide unified voter registration system, which stores voter roll data for every county in a single database. The new system, called Voter Registration and Election Management Solutions (VREMS), makes it easier and faster for election officials across Nevada to keep accurate voter rolls, since the data is now stored on one database instead of different ones for each county. 

Learn more about the case here.