Nevada

Dozens of Double Voting Cases in Nevada Sent to Police, by Victor Joecks

Published

2 years ago

April 22, 2024

Dozens of Double Voting Cases in Nevada Sent to Police, by Victor Joecks

Voter fraud is such a problem in Nevada that even a Democrat elected official is begrudgingly acknowledging it.

Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar recently put out a report on election security. His office investigated 146 instances of potential double voting in the 2022 general election. The report labeled 76 of the cases as “criminal.” Of those, 44 have been “referred for investigation” to the Nevada Department of Public Safety. Another three were sent to the attorney general’s office for prosecution. The remaining 29 were “closed by SOS, no action.” Also, there are open investigations on 26 cases of “possible cross-state votes.”

But instead of acknowledging that the system is vulnerable to fraud, Aguilar wants to downplay it.

“There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in Nevada, at any point in our state’s history,” he said.

That statement is an attempt to deflect from a few important points. For one, even small amounts of voter fraud can swing elections. In 2020, Republican Clark County Commission candidate Stavros Anthony lost his race to Ross Miller by 15 votes. There were more than 150,000 ballots cast in that race. Then-registrar of voters Joe Gloria said his office found 139 discrepancies it couldn’t explain in that contest. But the Democrats on the Clark County Commission certified Miller as the winner anyway.

Next, these double voting cases reveal flaws in Nevada’s election system. Take an example cited in the report as a “civil notice.” A father and son with the same name live at the same address. “The son votes in person,” the report states. “The dad mistakenly fills out his son’s ballot and mails it” in, the report states. The ballot is flagged and not counted. The father isn’t charged because it was accidental.

In one sense, the system worked because it caught the ballot. But there’s still a failure here. The father lost his vote because Nevada mails ballots to all active voters. If individuals had to request an absentee ballot, that likely wouldn’t have happened.

Finally, while the SOS’s report confirms fraud is possible, it doesn’t show how big the problem is. The system can catch someone who sends a mail-in ballot and then tries to vote in person. But how can it stop, much less prosecute, someone who picks up ballots from the trash can of an apartment complex? How can it stop someone from voting with a ballot they receive for a past resident of their home? The tests that I’ve run show signature verification is a deeply flawed security measure.

Another potential problem is voting by noncitizens. Nevada automatically registers them when they visit the DMV and sends them a ballot. In 2021, then-Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske’s office identified more than 5,300 registered voters “who presented an immigration document” when getting a driver’s license. It found 4,057 of them had voted in the 2020 election. It’s possible some had become citizens after receiving their driver’s license. It’s also possible many hadn’t and voted anyway. The SOS’s office refused to investigate further.

I asked the SOS’s office a number of pointed questions. For instance, what proactive steps does it take to investigate the integrity of the system and the effectiveness of signature verification? Is it taking steps to identify and remove noncitizens from the voter rolls? Does it believe those committing fraud will announce it after the election?

Cecilia Heston, the SOS’s public information officer, said she was working on the answers. I didn’t hear from her again. No surprise. Easier for her boss to ignore hard questions than acknowledge these problems.

Perhaps there’s “no evidence of widespread voter fraud” because Aguilar — like Democrats around the country — is sticking his head in the sand and wants you to do the same.

Victor Joecks is a columnist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Email him at [email protected] or follow @victorjoecks on X. To find out more about Victor Joecks and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Element5 Digital at Unsplash

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Nevada

Earthquake swarm rattles central Nevada near Tonopah along newly identified fault

Published

5 hours ago

March 4, 2026

Press Room

Earthquake swarm rattles central Nevada near Tonopah along newly identified fault

A swarm of earthquakes has been rattling a remote stretch of central Nevada near Tonopah, including a magnitude 4.0 quake that hit near Warm Springs Tuesday morning.

Seismologists said the activity is typical for Nevada, where clusters of earthquakes can flare up in a concentrated area. “This is a very Nevada-style earthquake sequence. We have these a lot where we just see an uptick in activity in a certain spot,” said Christie Rowe, director of the Nevada Seismological Lab.

The latest magnitude 4.0 quake struck east of Tonopah near Warm Springs. The largest earthquake in the swarm so far has measured a 4.2.

What has stood out to researchers is the fault involved. Rowe said the earthquakes are occurring along a fault stretching along the southern edge of the Monitor and Antelope ranges — and that it was previously unknown to scientists. “We didn’t know this fault was there. It’s a new fault to us — not to the Earth, obviously — but it was previously unknown,” Rowe said.

For now, the earthquakes have remained moderate. Rowe said the lab would not deploy additional temporary sensors unless activity increases to around a magnitude 5 or greater.

Seismologists said they are continuing to watch the swarm closely as Nevada works to bring the ShakeAlert early warning system to the state. The program, already active in neighboring states, can send cellphone alerts seconds before shaking arrives. “For me, it’s a really high priority. That distance to the faults gives us enough time to warn people — and that can make a big difference in reducing injuries and damage,” Rowe said.

Seismologists encouraged anyone who feels shaking to report it through the U.S. Geological Survey’s “Did You Feel It” system, saying even small quakes can help scientists better understand Nevada’s seismic activity.

Experts said the swarm is worth monitoring but is not cause for alarm. They noted that earthquakes like the 5.8 that hit near Yerington in December 2024 typically happen in Nevada about every eight to 10 years, and said they will continue monitoring the current activity closely.

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Nevada

Kalshi Enforcement Action Belongs in Nevada Court, Judge Says

Published

17 hours ago

March 3, 2026

Press Room

Kalshi Enforcement Action Belongs in Nevada Court, Judge Says

Nevada state court is the proper venue for reviewing whether KalshiEX LLC is improperly accepting sports wagers without a license, a federal district court said.

The Nevada Gaming Control Board showed that the state statutes under which it seeks relief don’t require interpreting federal law, Judge Miranda M. Du of the US District Court for the District of Nevada said in a Monday order. The board’s action is now remanded to the First Judicial District Court in Carson City, Nev., the order said.

The board in 2025 urged Kalshi, a financial services company, to get a gaming license, but the …

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Nevada

EDITORIAL: Nevada still vulnerable as tourist downturn continues

Published

1 day ago

March 3, 2026

Press Room

EDITORIAL: Nevada still vulnerable as tourist downturn continues

Strip gaming executives can put their best spin on the numbers, but local tourism indicators remain a major concern. Casino operators seeking to draw more people through the door still have much work to do.

The Nevada Gaming Control Board released January gaming numbers Friday. The news was underwhelming. The state gaming win was down 6.6 percent from a year earlier. The Strip took the largest hit, an 11 percent drop. But the gloomy returns were spread throughout Clark County: Downtown Las Vegas was off 5.2 percent, Laughlin suffered a 3.3 percent decline and the Boulder Strip dipped by 7 percent.

For the current fiscal year, gaming tax collections are up a paltry
2.1 percent, below budget projections.

The red flags include more than gaming numbers. Recently released figures for 2025 reveal that visitation to Las Vegas fell nearly 8 percent from 2024, which represented the lowest total since the pandemic in 2021. Traffic at Reid International Airport fell more than 10 percent in December and was down 6 percent for the year. Strip occupancy rates fell 3 percent in 2025.

To be fair, this is not just a Las Vegas problem. International travel to the United States was down
4.8 percent in January, Forbes reported, the ninth straight month of decline. Travel from Europe fell 5.2 percent, and passenger counts from Asia fell 7.5 percent. Canadian tourism cratered by 22 percent.

No doubt that President Donald Trump’s blustery rhetoric has played a role in the decline, but there’s more at work. International tourism has been largely flat since Barack Obama’s last few years in office. But domestic travel has held relatively steady although it is “starting to cool,” according to the U.S. Travel Association. Las Vegas hasn’t been helped by high-profile complaints last year about exorbitant Strip prices for parking, bottled water and other staples. Casino operators responded by offering discounts, particularly for locals, and they’ll need to continue those policies into 2026.

The tourism downturn has ramifications for the state budget, which relies primarily on sales and gaming tax revenues to support spending plans. “Nevada’s employment and economic challenges reflect deep structural factors that extend beyond cyclical economic fluctuations,” noted a recent report by economic analyst John Restrepo. “The state’s extreme concentration in tourism and gaming creates unique vulnerabilities.”

The irony is that state and local politicians have been talking for the past half century about “diversifying” the state economy. In recent years, that effort has primarily consisted of handing out millions in tax breaks and other incentives to attract businesses to the state. A dispassionate observer might ask whether that approach has brought an adequate return on investment.

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