LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar personally reached out to a voter who's been receiving election mail addressed to his home's previous owner for years.
The secretary learned of the issue from a Channel 13 story on Tuesday, as Las Vegas voter Russ Lorenzen reported he'd received official election mail addressed to a person he purchased his home from in 1997.
Lorenzen first reached out to Channel 13 before the June primary, showing us fliers and later official election mail he says he's been receiving for years. The problem became especially acute after 2020, when the Nevada Legislature authorized a mail-in ballot be sent to every active registered voter automatically.
Aguilar said he called Lorenzen on Wednesday to commiserate and to explain the voter roll process.
"First of all, I felt bad that government hadn't responded to his issues or his concerns directly to explain the steps he needed to go through," said Aguilar. "So I wanted to make sure that somebody called him and actually talked to him about the issue, explained to him the situation, but also explained to him the challenges we have from just removing somebody from the voter rolls over a simple verbal conversation. That does not qualify to inactivate a voter."
WATCH | Secretary of state reaches out to voter with mail problem
Lorenzen told Channel 13 that he'd called the state after seeing Aguilar on television, boasting that Nevada runs some of the most secure, accessible and transparent elections in the country. Lorenzen says he was told that he needed to fill out a discrepancy report to stop the mail from coming.
Lorenzen says he returned a form, but Clark County officials said they never received it.
In order to place a voter on inactive status, the county must receive a written notification. That often happens if a voter postcard is returned by the post office as undeliverable.
But Lorenzen said he simply tossed out the fliers and other election mail he's been receiving, so the county had no idea his home's former owner should be removed from the rolls.
Aguilar said if people receive election mail at their home addressed to someone else, they should write "return to sender" or "addressee no longer lives at address" on the mail.
"An individual receiving some else's mail that's not at the address of which they are living should be returned to the county, so the county can start the process of inactivating that voter or trying to reach out to that voter to tell them to update their information," Aguilar said.
Once the county receives written notice, a voter is placed on the inactive list, and, if that person doesn't vote in two federal elections, their name will be removed during regular voter list maintenance.
Aguilar says the process is deliberately difficult, because the right to vote is sacrosanct.
"We want to make sure the opportunity exists for people to raise issues and concerns, but they can't be just verbal," he said. "They have to be written, and it has to be through the proper challenge. And yes, government functions are frustrating because it becomes bureaucratic, but at the same time, you have to protect that fundamental right to vote."
Aguilar and other officials stress that just because someone has a mail ballot, it doesn't mean they can cast an illegitimate vote. Officials verify the signature on the outside of a mail ballot envelope matches the voter signature on file before any ballots are counted.
In addition, if a person casts a ballot in-person, and a mail ballot is later received from that same voter, an investigation would be launched to determine what happened.
Aguilar also asked voters to check their registration and update their address if they've moved, by going online to vote.nv.gov. You can update your information, change parties, see your voting history and make other changes at that site.
"There needs to be a little proactive effort on the voter to notify the county that they've actually moved," he said. "The burden to take somebody off the voter rolls is extremely high, and that's just the protection of the fundamental right to vote, and people believe that that should be strong."
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