Citizen Outreach’s “Pigpen Project” was created to assist election officials with cleaning up Nevada’s dirty voter rolls a couple years ago.
Since that time, Nevada Secretary of State (SOS) Cisco Aguilar has bent over backwards to block our efforts, including enforcing a ridiculously strict interpretation of “personal knowledge” to reject pre-election challenges to voters who have moved.
Nevertheless, late yesterday afternoon the SOS confirmed that an Election Integrity Violation Report (EIVR) we filed over a year ago did, in fact, catch a voter who voted twice in two different states in the 2022 general election.
Naturally, for privacy purposes, I’ll refer to him here on out as “John Doe.”
Back in early 2024, the Pigpen Project’s data analyst, Dan Burdish, identified John Doe as someone who was on Nevada’s “Active” voter registration file, had filed a permanent change-of-address with the United States Postal Service, and re-registered to vote in Texas.
Further data research discovered that Mr. Doe voted in person in Texas in the 2022 general election AND by mail in the Nevada 2022 general election.
Again, this was all done via data research of official government databases. We had zero “personal knowledge” of Mr. Doe moving or voting. That’s critically important, which I’ll get to later.
Anyway, on March 29, 2024, I filed an EIVR requesting an investigation into what appeared to be a case of Mr. Doe “double voting” based on the data research – noting that it was possible someone else had voted his mail-in ballot without his knowledge.
On June 6, 2024, the SOS advised that it had completed its investigation and closed the case – but refused to tell us the results of their investigation and/or what actions they took.
After repeated verbal requests seeking that information were stone-walled by the Secretary himself, we filed a Public Records Request (PRR) on November 24, 2024, seeking “any and all documents related to this investigation, including current status.”
By law, the SOS’ office was supposed to provide the documents within five days. However, they used a loophole in the law to delay and string out the process – including claims of “confidentiality” and “attorney/client privilege.”
We challenged the validity of those claims and the SOS eventually acknowledged we were correct. As such, we FINALLY – over six months later! – received a copy of the transcript of the phone conservations an SOS investigator had with Mr. Doe on May 14, 2024.
There are a lot of troubling issues uncovered in the phone conservations, but here’s the bottom line…
Mr. Doe ultimately admitted – after saying to the investigator, “before I say anymore, I like to have a lawyer” – that he voted in person in the 2022 general election in Texas AND by mail in Nevada.
At the end of the conversation, Mr. Doe fessed up directly: “Oh, I did it. I did it.”
Now, here’s where it gets even more interesting (and troubling)…
In an unsigned cover letter to us yesterday, the SOS notes that “the SOS Office had referred the case to the Nevada Attorney General’s Office for potential prosecution. In June 2024, the Secretary of State’s Office was informed the Attorney General’s Office declined prosection.”
DECLINED PROSECUTION!
The Pigpen Project caught and documented – using government database research – someone who illegally voted twice in the 2022 general election. The SOS investigator confirmed, by admission, that the voter did, in fact, illegally vote twice.
And Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford “declined prosecution”? What’s up with that?
We’ll try to find out – though I’m sure our efforts to get to the bottom of it will be resisted mightily by the AG’s office. Transparent, Aguilar and Ford are not.
So why is this so important?
One, it proves that the system of data research that the Pigpen Project is using is credible and reliable – which should be no surprise since it’s the same system and data the SOS is allowed to use.
Clearly, we haven’t been making “unfounded allegations” using “unreliable data.”
Two, the SOS is now hiding behind Aguilar’s personal definition of “personal knowledge” in order to refuse to investigate 881 EIVR complaints we filed two months ago on individuals who were still on the “Active” voter list last November but had filed a change-of-address with the post office.
They were part of the 33,000+ “challenges” the Pigpen Project filed against “moved” voters last summer, which Agular rejected for lack of “personal knowledge.” Yet – get this! – they all somehow voted BY MAIL in the 2024 general election.
In Aguilar’s mind, it seems you can only challenge a voter if you help them pack up the furniture, load it into the U-Haul, drive with the person to their new home, and help them unpack. Ridiculous.
Anyway, we used data research to finger Mr. Doe in March 2024.
Then in August 2024 Aguilar changed the rules and rejected our pre-election challenges, citing lack of “personal knowledge.”
And two months ago he used the same “personal knowledge” excuse to reject our post-election EIVRs – which were submitted using the exact same process used to catch Mr. Doe.
It makes no sense. What is he trying to hide?
Worse, Secretary Aguilar submitted a bill this session – AB534 – which would enshrine in Nevada law his personal, archaic definition of “personal knowledge” (see special report by clicking here) to block citizen efforts to assist election officials in cleaning up the voter rolls.
His bill passed on a party line vote in both the Senate and Assembly. Not a single Republican voted for it. Now it sits on Gov. Lombardo’s desk.
Here’s hoping the governor adds it to his long list of vetoes in the coming days.
And the next time you hear Aguilar or Ford claim they haven’t found any voting fraud, know it’s because either (a) they’ve chosen not to look for it, or (b) they’re lying through their teeth.
