Nevada election officials ramp up voter roll maintenance ahead of November election

RENO, Nev. (AP) — Nearly 8% of Nevada’s active registered voters are receiving a postcard from county election officials that they will have to return next month or else they won’t automatically receive a ballot in the mail for the upcoming presidential election.

That comes under a routine process aimed at improving voter lists in a crucial battleground state that mails ballots to all active registered voters on its voter registration lists. Those who don’t return the postcard by Aug. 6 will be removed from the active voters list to an “inactive” status – meaning they won’t receive a mail ballot for the general election but would still be eligible to vote.

Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar announced the initiative on Tuesday to follow the National Voter Registration Act, which requires states to take steps to maintain accurate and current voter registration rolls, including maintenance actions 90 days before an election.

Voter registration lists, known as voter rolls, typically collect information about eligible voters including contact information, mail addresses and political party affiliation.

Postcards were sent to over 150,000 voters who had official election mail returned as undeliverable during February’s presidential preference primary or June’s primary and did not vote or update their voter record during that election cycle, according to Aguilar’s office.

It also comes as Aguilar is spearheading a transition to a state-led Voter Registration and Election Management System, instead of the current system where the 17 counties report their registration data to the state. Aguilar hopes the new “top-down” database, scheduled to go live next month, will increase the speed and accuracy of maintaining voter rolls.

Some conservative groups including the Republican National Committee have challenged the legitimacy of voter registration data across the country, including in Nevada, through door-knocking campaigns and a flurry of lawsuits. It also comes as former President Donald Trump repeatedly claims without evidence that his opponents are trying to cheat.

In Washoe County, which includes Reno, one county commissioner uses the county’s voter rolls as his reason to vote against certifying election results. A 3-2 vote against certification of two local recounts earlier this month sent Washoe County into uncharted legal territory before the vote was overturned by the same commission a week later.

Many groups cast those voter roll challenges as good government endeavors intended to help local election offices clean up the rolls and bolster confidence in elections. Voting rights groups and many Democrats believe the effort aims to shake faith in the results of the 2024 election and lay the legal groundwork to challenge the results.