What Is Cisco Aguilar Hiding from the Feds?
Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar got a letter telling him he’s the target of a federal investigation.
His response to Reuters?
“I am not scared of these f*ckers.”
That’s Nevada’s chief election officer. Talking about the U.S. Justice Department. On the record.
Hold that thought. Because to understand why the feds want Nevada’s voter rolls, you first need to see what just happened next door in California.
HOW THE FEDS BUILT THEIR CALIFORNIA LIST
Back in July, Homeland Security flagged roughly 190,000 possible noncitizens on California’s voter rolls. That wasn’t the final word. And the feds didn’t pretend it was.
After more review, they narrowed it to about 20,000 names they say are likely noncitizens.
Then the Justice Department went to court. It’s asking a federal judge to set aside mail ballots tied to those names until citizenship can be checked.
Now we know a lot more about how they got there.
In a new sworn filing, a DHS official laid out the process under penalty of perjury. Fox News correspondent Matt Finn reported the steps. Here they are.
First, DOJ got California’s voter rolls. That’s names, addresses, birth dates, phone numbers and voting history.
Second, the feds “enhanced” that data using LexisNexis Accurint. It’s a commercial tool investigators use to confirm who’s who.
Third, they compared those records to immigration files. Specifically, the “A-numbers” that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services assigns to noncitizens.
Fourth, they ran the possible matches against Social Security data. The goal was to weed out anyone who might be a citizen or who’d died.
Fifth, USCIS reviewed what was left. It gave each name a confidence level based on several pieces of evidence.
Sixth, federal fraud investigators reviewed the matches by hand.
That’s not a fishing net. It’s a funnel. About 190,000 names went in. About 20,000 came out.
Is it perfect? No. And DOJ admits it.
Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter said some names may turn out to be citizens.
“We’re not perfect,” he said. “And that’s why we’ve asked California to cooperate with us.”
Los Angeles County checked a sample of 200 names and found problems. Some appeared to be born in the U.S.
Fair enough. But that’s the whole point.
The feds did the heavy lifting. They’re asking the states to finish the job. Instead, California called it a political stunt and dug in.
And this isn’t theoretical.
DOJ says it has charged 104 people with voting fraud offenses since President Trump returned to office. Ten noncitizens were indicted in Minnesota last month alone.
BEING FLAGGED ISN’T BEING PURGED
Here’s something the other side won’t tell you.
Getting flagged doesn’t mean getting kicked off the rolls. Not automatically. Not even close. There’s a process.
Election officials check the name against their own records. The voter typically gets notice and a chance to prove citizenship.
And federal law already bars states from systematic voter purges within 90 days of a federal election.
So nobody loses their vote because a computer said so. A flag starts a review. It doesn’t end one.
Remember that the next time someone screams “voter suppression.”
NOW, ABOUT NEVADA
Which brings us back to Cisco Aguilar.
DHS says as many as 15,903 noncitizens may be registered to vote in Nevada.
Aguilar won’t hand over the state’s full, unredacted voter rolls. He says he’s protecting voters’ privacy.
In a Reno Gazette Journal column last week, he wrote that his office “will refuse any federal demand the law does not support.”
He told the Las Vegas Review-Journal, “we’re not going to fold in any way whatsoever until a judge demands that I have to conform.”
Let’s look at his reasons. They don’t hold up.
THE FEDS ALREADY HAVE THE “PRIVATE” DATA
Aguilar’s big worry is sensitive information. Things like Social Security numbers.
Um, who do you think issues Social Security numbers?
The federal government!
The full numbers. For every American who has one.
Nevada’s voter file typically holds a driver’s license number or just the last four digits of a Social Security number.
So the state isn’t guarding a secret from Washington. It’s guarding a fragment of something Washington already has.
What the feds don’t have is the match. Which name on Nevada’s rolls goes with which federal record.
That’s the only thing Aguilar is really withholding.
And it’s the one thing you’d need to catch a noncitizen voter.
WHY IS CARSON CITY MORE TRUSTWORTHY THAN DOJ?
Here’s the other problem.
Aguilar already has all this data. His office holds it right now.
We’re supposed to believe it’s safe with him but not with the U.S. Justice Department?
Think about that.
A state election office is somehow a safer vault than federal law enforcement. The same people who handle classified intelligence, criminal records and, yes, your Social Security file.
I’m not buying it. I don’t think you should either.
“ELECTIONS ARE A STATE ISSUE”
Aguilar and his allies keep saying elections belong to the states.
To a point, that’s true. States run elections. Nobody wants Washington counting ballots in Elko.
But next week’s ballot isn’t just about Nevada. We’re electing members of Congress. Those are federal offices.
The Constitution speaks to this.
Article I, Section 4 lets Congress set rules for congressional elections. The Help America Vote Act requires every state to keep a statewide voter list. And the Justice Department enforces those laws.
A noncitizen voting in a federal election is committing a federal crime. So when a noncitizen casts a ballot for Congress, it’s not just Nevada’s business. It’s America’s.
And the feds have every right to protect that.
Critics will point out that courts have mostly sided with the states in these records fights, including here in Nevada.
But those rulings were about what specific laws require. None of them said Washington has no stake in who votes for Congress.
THE 185 NAMES
Aguilar says DHS sent information on 185 Nevada voters. He says his office found nothing in its records to suggest they’re noncitizens.
Maybe so. But 185 out of a claimed 15,903? That’s barely a peek.
And he checked his own records. That’s grading your own homework.
The whole point of a cross-check is using data you don’t already have.
“OPEN TO COLLABORATION”? REALLY?
Now here’s the part that gets me.
Back in July, Aguilar’s office told DHS it was “open to good faith collaboration that truly enhances the accuracy of our voter rolls and excludes ineligible non-citizens.”
Sounds reasonable, right?
Then he got a letter saying he was under federal investigation. And he told Reuters, “I am not scared of these f*ckers.”
He wasn’t done. He said the pressure would only “make us fight back even stronger.”
That’s not a man looking for common ground. That’s a man looking for a fight. With the Justice Department of the United States.
Ask yourself: If federal investigators sent you a letter, would you call them that? On the record? To Reuters?
Aguilar’s on the ballot himself next week, running for reelection. Maybe that explains the tough-guy act. It doesn’t excuse it.
THE SIMPLE TRUTH
If Nevada’s voter rolls are clean, cooperating costs Cisco Aguilar nothing.
The feds run the check. The names clear. He gets to say “I told you so.”
If they’re not clean, Nevadans deserve to know.
Either way, profanity isn’t a policy. And stonewalling isn’t protecting voters. It’s protecting the status quo.
Nevada’s elections should be decided by Nevada’s legal voters. Period.
The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Nevada News & Views. Digital technology may have been used in the research, writing, or production of this article. Please verify information and consult additional sources as needed.
