Washoe County's Elections Office Earns Some Well-Deserved Credit.
Three years ago, Citizen Outreach couldn't get Washoe County's elections office to return a phone call about bad voter data.
Today, they're returning our calls, taking our data seriously, and getting results to show for it.
Back when we launched the Pigpen Project to help clean up Nevada's voter rolls, Washoe County was one of our biggest headaches.
Getting anyone in that office to take voter roll accuracy seriously felt like pulling teeth. But something changed a few months ago.
A new team took over. And instead of stonewalling and obstructing, they started working with us – thanks to Washoe County Commissioner Clara Andriola putting us together on a conference call.
Thank you, Commissioner!
Meanwhile, Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar's office continues to slow-walk, when not openly obstructing, our efforts to assist in cleaning up the rolls statewide.
And now, here’s what happens when a county actually wants to fix the problem.
Nevada uses a program called ERIC, the Electronic Registration Information Center, to catch voters who've moved or died.
The problem is, ERIC doesn't cover all 50 states. So if a Nevada voter moves to a state that isn't part of ERIC, that voter can slip through the cracks and stay listed as active.
The Pigpen Project uses a different data program – one that catches many of the movers to states ERIC misses.
Back in February, the Pigpen Project submitted 86 such names of suspected moved voters to the Washoe County elections department.
These were people we'd identified as having moved out of state, yet were still sitting on the active voter rolls even after the county's own robust routine cleanup was completed last year.
Federal law puts a hold on any bulk clean-up actions during the 90-day blackout period ahead of elections. And no changes to voter rolls can be processed during that time.
But the primary's over now. And the Washoe elections folks got to work.
George Guthrie, Public Information Officer for the Washoe County Registrar of Voters, emailed us an update yesterday:
“I wanted to let you know, of the 86 challenges received, all but five have either been inactivated or canceled.”
Woo-hoo!
And they’re not stopping there.
Yesterday the Registrar's office also announced it's mailing about 19,500 address confirmation cards to additional voters flagged through returned mail or the ERIC system.
If you get one, you have 33 days to respond or update your registration online at RegisterToVote.NV.gov.
Ignore it, and you'll move to inactive status. You're still registered and still eligible to vote, but you won't automatically get a mail ballot.
All of this has to wrap up before August 5, 2026, when the next 90-day blackout period kicks in again ahead of the general election.
Critics, such as Aguilar, like to claim voter roll cleanup is some kind of suppression tactic. It’s not.
The 81 voters who'd moved out of state had no business staying active on Washoe County's rolls. Nobody lost their right to vote. The voter rolls simply got a little more accurate.
Washoe County's new elections team deserves credit for doing the right thing and working with the Pigpen Project as an ally, not an enemy. And it’s greatly appreciated.
Now the question is why the Secretary of State's office refuses do the same thing.
The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Nevada News & Views. Digital technology was used in the research, writing, and production of this article. Please verify information and consult additional sources as needed.
