The Fair Election Fund (FEF), a nonpartisan national election integrity watchdog group, today has released its third report in a series reviewing election administration in key battleground states. The latest report evaluates Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar’s handling of the 2024 election, awarding him a “D+” grade for numerous administrative failures that have eroded voter confidence in the state.

In 2024, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s third-party campaign faced difficulties due to unclear Nevada laws and shifting guidance from Secretary Aguilar’s office. Initially, RFK Jr. was told his vice-presidential nominee wasn’t required on petitions, but the campaign was later told the opposite after collecting 20,000 signatures. RFK Jr. filed a federal lawsuit and had to restart the petition process multiple times due to technicalities, eventually gaining ballot access. These inconsistencies highlight concerns over the professionalism and neutrality of Nevada’s election administration.

Also in 2024, the Nevada Green Party (NGP) met the signature requirement for ballot access using a petition form provided by Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar. However, the Nevada Democratic Party challenged this, arguing that the wrong form was used. Though the NGP followed Aguilar’s explicit instructions, the Nevada Supreme Court ultimately removed the party from the ballot, calling the error caused by Aguilar’s guidance an “unfortunate mistake.”

Just some of the other examples of Aguilar’s alarming incompetence are as follows:

• Inaccurate Voter Registration Roll
  • In March 2024, the Republican National Committee, the Nevada Republican Party, and a Nevada voter filed a lawsuit challenging Secretary Aguilar’s handling of Nevada voter registration lists. Numerous counties in Nevada had more registered voters than voting-eligible citizens.
  • 6,136 non-citizens were listed as active voters in Nevada’s 2024 voter registration list.
  • 359,403 inactive voter registrations (16.3% of total), above national average (11.1%).
• Campaign Finance Discrepancies
  • Judges and candidates accepted $10,000+ contributions, despite a $5,000 limit.
  • Secretary Aguilar’s office gave inconsistent answers on special election donation limits.
•  Counting Undated Ballots
  • In 2024, the Secretary of State’s office counted ballots without postmarks, contrary to Nevada law.
  • The Republican National Committee and the Nevada GOP filed a lawsuit to stop the practice.

Click here to read the full report.

BACKGROUND:

• In April FEF launched a new initiative, grading election administration officials in battleground states across the U.S.
  • The first report card graded Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson a “D” for her failures to bring confidence to Michigan voters.
  • The second report evaluated the North Carolina Board of Elections (NCSBE), which received a “C” grade for its election administration.
• In March, the Fair Election Fund filed commentary with the FCC on the issue raised against CBS for unlawful news distortion and coordination with the Harris 2024 Presidential Campaign in the network’s 60 Minutes interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris last year.
• In August of 2024, the Fair Election Fund uncovered 60,000 potential cases of donor fraud involving the Biden-Harris campaign and ActBlue and turned over the data to Republican attorneys general across the country.
• The Fair Election Fund successfully stopped national Democrats’ voter suppression scheme in states across the country last year. In October 2024, FEF launched a six-figure paid media campaign that exposed Marc Elias’s failed racist lawsuits that tried to disenfranchise thousands of black voters who signed petitions to get Cornel West on the ballot in their respective battleground states.
• The Fair Election Fund invested over $750,000 in paid media efforts last year to expose the Democrats’ attempts to block Kamala Harris’s competition from the ballot. The Fair Election Fund invested in states such as North Carolina, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Click here to learn more about the Democrats’ failed election interference scheme and how the Fair Election Fund stood up for voting rights.
• Last year, the Fair Election Fund launched an investigation examining the jury summons responses and voter rolls in key swing state counties to identify voter fraud.

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