Eye-popping allegations of voter and election fraud in Nevada highlighted by President Trump’s campaign are so far not the subject of any criminal investigations by the state’s attorney general.
The office of Nevada Attorney General Democrat Aaron Ford said in a statement Monday that it has not received any “formal complaint” of voter fraud, election irregularities, or related problems.
“We received a redacted Affidavit that does not contain the individual’s name, signature or contact information. As it stands, our office has not yet received a formal complaint and cannot conduct an investigation without such critical details,” a spokesman for the attorney general told the Washington Examiner in a statement on Monday. “This office takes allegations of voter fraud extremely seriously and works with our elections officials, as well as law enforcement partners in Nevada and other states, to investigate and prosecute voter fraud when warranted by the evidence.”
In addition to pursuing lawsuits in Nevada over the state’s verification of signatures on mail-in ballots and observation of poll workers, Trump’s legal team in Nevada (led by former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, former acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell, and American Conservative Union President Matt Schlapp) has highlighted shock claims of voter fraud and election mismanagement.
In a Sunday press conference, Schlapp noted two reports of deceased people who “miraculously” cast ballots in the general election: Rosemarie Hartle and Fred Sokes Jr., both of whom died in 2017.
Two unidentified whistleblowers who were election workers in Nevada have signed redacted affidavits: one who alleged that mail-in ballots were improperly filled out in a Biden-Harris van outside a polling place and another who alleges a supervisor instructed to process mail-in ballots despite concerns over whether a signature matched.
As part of a claim of one lawsuit, the team produced a redacted list of more than 3,000 Nevada voters who, according to a national change of address database, no longer live in the state. Local Nevada officials say that this list may include individuals who can legally vote in Nevada while living somewhere else, such as members of the military or college students.
The two affidavits and list of 3,000 out-of-state voters have been forwarded to the U.S. Department of Justice. Trump’s legal team did not answer the Washington Examiner’s questions about whether it plans to file any complaints with the Nevada attorney general’s office related to these allegations.
The registrar of voters for Clark County, which accounts for the vast majority of votes cast in the state, has said that his office has received some reports of fraud (such as two instances of dead people voting in the election) and that he would send the complaints to the Nevada secretary of state, Republican Barbara Cegavske.
But Cegavske’s office said in a statement on Monday that while it “continues to investigate all credible allegations of fraud related to the 2020 general election” and will refer anyone found to have violated election law for prosecution, it can’t quantify how many reports of have been received.
The office explained that “the term voter fraud is extremely broad” and can include activities that the public does not normally think of as voter fraud.
“A single complaint or single investigation may include multiple allegations of fraud or multiple suspects. A focus simply on the number of complaints received or active investigations runs the risk of masking the true scope of a complaint or investigation,” the statement from the secretary of state’s office read. “Many voter fraud complaints lack any evidence and are more complaints about process or policy.”
Nevada is still completing post-election processes of vote count reconciliation and audits of the voting system, which might uncover “instances of actual or attempted fraud.”
“If so, these instances will be thoroughly investigated,” the secretary of state’s office said.
Presumptive president-elect Democrat Joe Biden leads Trump in Nevada by about 36,200 votes.
