{"id":46933,"date":"2023-12-06T18:30:31","date_gmt":"2023-12-07T01:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/?p=46933"},"modified":"2023-12-14T03:06:58","modified_gmt":"2023-12-14T10:06:58","slug":"hi-were-from-the-rnc-were-here-to-help-uh-oh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/hi-were-from-the-rnc-were-here-to-help-uh-oh\/","title":{"rendered":"Hi, We\u2019re from the RNC & We\u2019re Here to Help (uh-oh!)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/em><\/p>\n

(Chuck Muth)<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 As\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0in Tuesday\u2019s Las Vegas Review-Journal, lawyers for the Republican National Committee (RNC) sent a letter to Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar threatening to sue over claims that the SOS isn\u2019t cleaning the state\u2019s voter lists.
\u00a0
This is not helpful.\u00a0 Nor, as someone who has been working intently on this issue for the past year via our\u00a0Pigpen Project<\/a>, do their allegations hold any water.\u00a0 Let\u2019s start with this\u2026
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The lawyers allege that the SOS is in violation of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) for failing make \u201ca reasonable effort to remove the names of ineligible voters from the official lists of eligible voters.\u201d
\u00a0
The RNC, along with the Nevada GOP and some guy named Scott Johnston, who I\u2019ve never heard of, threaten to \u201cbring a lawsuit\u201d against the SOS and various Nevada counties, mostly Republican, \u201cif you fail to take specific actions to correct these violations.\u201d
\u00a0
Apparently, the fact that the SOS has already removed \u2013 using the National Change of Address (NCOA) process – almost 100,000 ineligible voters from the active voter lists this year alone doesn\u2019t constitute a \u201creasonable effort\u201d in the minds of the RNC crew.
\u00a0
And they\u2019re likely to lose this argument because a 2019 appeal decision by the United States District Court in Florida determined that\u2026
\u00a0
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u201cThe National Voter Registration Act requires the states – and as delegated by Florida, the counties – to employ a general program of list maintenance that makes a reasonable effort to remove voters who become ineligible because of death or change of address.<\/em>
\u00a0
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u201cThe statute provides one method — the National Change of Address Process — by which states may fulfill their obligations regarding change of address. The district court found that (Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda) Snipes availed herself of this safe harbor.\u201d<\/em>
\u00a0
So the Nevada Secretary of State, along with Nevada\u2019s various counties, who regularly do similar list maintenance,\u00a0ARE<\/u>\u00a0in compliance with the \u201creasonable effort\u201d requirement mandated by law.
\u00a0
And I can tell you from first-hand experience that the SOS office, and particularly the Clark County Registrar of Voters (ROV), have been nothing but helpful and cooperative with our independent efforts to remove ineligible voters that we\u2019ve identified who weren\u2019t picked up from the NVRA postcards that are regularly mailed out.
\u00a0
The RNC lawyers base their claims on an \u201canalysis\u201d of Census Bureau and voter registration data.\u00a0 Their \u201cevidence\u201d is that in some counties the number of registered voters exceeds the Census Bureau\u2019s adult population estimates in excess of the average in other states.
\u00a0
But the RNC is using \u201cfuzzy math\u201d to level its allegations.<\/strong>
\u00a0
Dan Burdish, data analyst for our Pigpen Project to clean up the voter rolls, points out that the RNC lawyers \u201care basing their analysis on the Voting Age Population (VAP) from February 2021 and Registered Voters from November 2023.\u201d
\u00a0
Burdish further notes that \u201cNevada is still one of the fastest growing states in the country.\u201d\u00a0 As such, cleaning and maintaining voter lists in Nevada is immeasurable harder than in other states.
\u00a0
In addition, Burdish points out that \u201cthe RNC is working on\u00a0ESTIMATES<\/u>\u00a0for the Voting Age Population and hard numbers for the registration.\u201d\u00a0 At the very least, apples to oranges, in addition to not acknowledging a variety of reasons why this might be.
\u00a0
Indeed, flaws in the NVRA law hamstrings election officials from more aggressively cleaning up the voter files.\u00a0 I\u2019ll give you an example\u2026
\u00a0
A few years ago, a friend of my daughters moved in with us for the summer.\u00a0 She turned 18 during that time, registered to vote, and then moved without changing her voter registration \u2013 which happens\u00a0ALL<\/u>\u00a0the time when people move.
\u00a0
We kept getting her ballots but, like most people, didn\u2019t return them to the post office. We just threw them away after the election.\u00a0 As such, even though she no longer lived here and moved out-of-state, there was no way for the election department to know that.
\u00a0
So while her move reduced the state\u2019s population by one, the registration list remained the same because, absent returned mail from the post office, there\u2019s no way for election officials to remove her from the voter rolls on their own even if they suspect she was no longer eligible due to moving.
\u00a0
That\u2019s not a failure by election officials. That\u2019s a flaw in the law.
\u00a0
When I brought this up with the RNC today, Stephen Kenny, Senior Counsel for the Republican National Committee, replied\u2026
\u00a0
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u201cOur letter is premised on the fact that courts have recognized that similarly high registration percentages compared to the population is evidence of a NVRA violation.\u201d<\/em>
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But in talking with other attorneys who have spent\u00a0YEARS<\/u>\u00a0working on this issue, that\u2019s not true.\u00a0 In fact, lawyers who tried to make this case on similar grounds in the past abandoned the argument long ago.
\u00a0
That dog just won\u2019t hunt.<\/strong>
\u00a0
At the Pigpen Project, we\u2019ve found a way to identify voters who fall through the cracks because election officials can\u2019t remove them without getting returned mail from the post office.
\u00a0
Our volunteers then go door-to-door and ask the current resident to sign an official \u201cnon-residency\u201d report for any voters who no longer live at that address.\u00a0 That\u2019s\u00a0ACTUAL<\/u>\u00a0evidence, not conjecture based on statistical analysis.
\u00a0
Over the past couple of months, our volunteers have successfully obtained hundreds of signed non-residency reports.\u00a0\u00a0 And the Clark County ROV has been removing such ineligible voters from the active voter file after confirming our reports.
\u00a0
That\u2019s hundreds of ineligible voters who will no longer automatically have mail-in ballots sent to their former home next year \u2013 in addition to the almost 100,000 the SOS has already removed this year.
\u00a0
How many have the RNC, the Nevada GOP, and Scott Johnston gotten removed?
\u00a0
None.
\u00a0
The election officials we\u2019ve been working with have been extremely helpful and professional in making sure we know the correct procedures for doing this work within the confines of the NVRA law.
\u00a0
Threatening to sue the very people who are doing their jobs according to the law and have been working with us to further clean up the voter rolls in Nevada is the exact opposite of \u201chelpful\u201d \u2013 especially when all they have are suspicions, not actual evidence.
\u00a0
The RNC\u2019s threat will accomplish nothing but further alienate the election officials we\u2019re successfully working with and undermine our efforts.\u00a0 It will also enflame \u2013 without evidence – the \u201celection fraud\u201d narrative which inevitably leads many to just stay home rather than cast a ballot.
\u00a0
The best thing the RNC can do in this regard is to\u00a0PLEASE<\/u>\u00a0stop \u201chelping.\u201d
\u00a0
FAMOUS LAST WORDS<\/strong>
\u00a0
\u201cNevada’s six GOP electors who declared Trump the winner of the Silver State in 2020 have been indicted. \u2026 The six Nevadans who were charged are Michael McDonald, Jesse Law, Jim DeGraffenreid, Durward James Hindle III, Shawn Meehan and Eileen Rice.\u201d \u2013\u00a0Jessica Hill, Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/em><\/strong>
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\u201cThe six individuals have been charged with Offering a False Instrument for Filing, a category C felony, and Uttering a Forged Instrument, a category D felony, for offering a false instrument titled \u2018Certificate of the Votes of the 2020 Electors from Nevada.\u2019\u201d \u2013\u00a0Megan Barth, Nevada Globe<\/em><\/strong>
\u00a0
\u201cRice, McDonald and Law did not immediately respond to phone calls or voicemails. Hindle and Degraffenreid did not respond to emailed requests for comment, and Meehan declined an emailed interview request, saying, \u2018no comment.\u2019\u201d \u2013\u00a0Tabitha Mueller, Nevada Independent<\/em><\/strong>
\u00a0
\u201cAmong the fake electors is Nevada GOP chairman Michael McDonald, who has pushed to bypass the state-run presidential primary to nominate a Republican presidential nominee, instead opting for a party-run caucus.\u201d \u2013\u00a0Associated Press<\/em><\/strong>
\u00a0
\u201cClark County Republican Party Chairman Jesse Law is running for Assembly District 2, the seat being vacated by @heidikasamanv, who is running for #nv03.\u00a0 Law was indicted by a grand jury Wednesday in connection with the signing of fake elector certificates following the 2020 election.\u201d \u2013\u00a0Steve Sebelius<\/em><\/strong>
\u00a0
Mr. Muth is president of Citizen Outreach, publisher of Nevada News & Views, and founder of CampaignDoctor.com.\u00a0 You can sign up for his conservative, Nevada-focused e-newsletter at MuthsTruths.com.\u00a0 His views are his own.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Chuck Muth)\u00a0\u2013 As\u00a0reported\u00a0in Tuesday\u2019s Las Vegas Review-Journal, lawyers for the Republican National Committee (RNC) sent a letter to Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar threatening to sue over claims that the SOS isn\u2019t cleaning the state\u2019s voter lists.\u00a0This is not helpful.\u00a0 Nor, as someone who has been working intently on this issue for the past […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42053,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[748],"tags":[3466],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46933"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46933"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46936,"href":"https:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46933\/revisions\/46936"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}