(Chuck Muth) – Sorry I haven’t been able to keep you fully informed on what’s been going on with the Pigpen Project recently, but things are moving at light speed and I’ve been overwhelmed with all manner of election season activities.
But here’s an important update…
Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar likes to say that “Nevada runs some of the most secure, safest and accessible elections in the country.”
We’ve also been told that Joe Biden is sharp as a tack, that the economy is doing great, that the border is secure, that our streets are safe, and that Kamala Harris is the greatest thing since sliced bread.
In this day and age, people can “say” anything.
All I can say is I have “personal knowledge” that Secretary Aguilar’s claim is simply not true. Even after removing over a hundred thousand ineligible voters from the voter rolls back in August, tens of thousands of voters who have moved to another state remain on the “Active” list.
And as Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch notes, “When you have dirty voting rolls, you can have dirty elections.”
It didn’t have to be this way.
But before going any further, let me make something perfectly clear: The problem here isn’t the county clerks/registrars.
Our efforts to assist in cleaning up Nevada’s dirty voter rolls started by working with local election officials over a year ago. And we were making great progress – until last March when Aguilar issued a private memo to the clerks throwing several monkey wrenches into the effort.
So we were forced into filing official “challenges” of voters who have moved. But again, the Secretary has gone to extraordinary lengths to block us from doing so.
This is important because I don’t want you to blame the local county clerks.
Indeed, with the exceptions of Clark and Washoe counties – where there are registrars of voters solely focused on elections – the rural county clerks have a bunch of other non-election responsibilities under their jurisdiction to attend to.
As such, and with few exceptions – Nye County particularly – the local election officials have welcomed our assistance and worked cooperatively with us.
As for the lawsuits we were forced to file, we named the clerks/registrars in their OFFICIAL CAPACITY, not because they’d been uncooperative. If we could have simply sued the Secretary of State, we would have.
So don’t take it out on the clerks. If that ever changes, I’ll let you know who the problems are and how to reach out to them.
That said…
NOBODY UNDERSTANDS
Again, from personal, first-hand experience, I can tell you that many of these local election officials – as well as the local district attorneys that Aguilar has roped into this fiasco – do NOT fully understand the complex and complicated laws related to voter list maintenance.
Also, again, it’s not their fault. Until the Pigpen Project came along no one paid any real attention to cleaning up the voter files. They’ve done the bare minimum necessary to be in compliance with the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA).
But once the Nevada Legislature changed the law to mandate ballots be mailed out to every Active voter, scrubbing ineligible voters from the list became extremely important – not only to prevent potential voting fraud but to save taxpayers’ money that’s wasted by mailing ballots to people who no longer live here.
And I’m not kidding when I say the election laws are about as fouled up as you can get. Nuclear scientists would have trouble understanding them, let alone local election officials. I’ll give you an example…
There are two types of “challenges” citizens can file in Nevada – Section 535 challenges and Section 547 challenges.
The Secretary of State created an official form to fill out for Section 547 challenges but has neglected to create one for Section 535 challenges.
Worse, I just discovered this week that he didn’t create just ONE official form to file a Section 547 challenge, but TWO. Which one are we supposed to use? Who knows?
That aside, here are the key differences between the two types of challenges…
Section 535 challenges can be filed at any time by anybody. Section 547 challenges can only be filed between 25 and 30 days before an election and only by someone living in the same precinct as the challenged voter.
Now, I’m not going to embarrass the county elections office where the following happened – again, because it’s not really their fault – but our attorney hand-delivered a new Section 535 challenge this week and was told he couldn’t because it was inside the 30-day window…which doesn’t apply to Section 535 challenges.
The local election officials honestly didn’t know and understand the difference between the two types of challenges.
And they’re not alone. The local district attorneys – who also have never really had to deal with these issues in the past until we came along – don’t fully grasp the spider web of conflicting laws any better than the clerks/registrars.
In fact, because of this lack of knowledge they’ve been deferring to Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford’s office for direction on how to deal with these challenges. And it’s Ford’s office that’s been directing the Secretary of State’s office.
In this regard, Aaron Ford has been operating as Nevada’s chief elections officer, not Cisco Aguilar.
Now let me show you just how absurd this whole circus has become thanks to Ford’s office…
PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE
When we filed the initial four lawsuits seeking to get the county clerks/registrars to process our Section 535 challenges from last July, Ford intervened and claimed the challenges were unacceptable because they were based on a review of National Change of Address (NCOA) records maintained by the post office.
He claimed that didn’t constitute “personal knowledge” of the fact that the voters had moved out of state.
Well, OK. We disagreed, but withdrew our lawsuits. That doesn’t mean, however, that we were deterred.
Instead, we deployed Iris Stone’s indomitable team of boots-on-the-ground Pigpen Project volunteers to submit new challenges within their own precincts under Section 547.
But this time, the volunteers went to the actual homes where the voters were registered and knocked on the door. If the current resident advised that the registered voter no longer lived there, the volunteers filed a challenge.
In Carson City, one of those intrepid volunteers – Kelly Osborne, a true hero in this effort – filed a half-dozen challenges and submitted them to Carson City Clerk Scott Hoen.
Mr. Hoen did exactly what he was supposed to do under Nevada Revised Statutes (NRS). He forwarded the challenges to the local District Attorney, Jason Woodbury.
But Mr. Woodbury’s office didn’t know what to do with them. So he reached out to the Secretary of State’s office seeking guidance, writing on October 9, 2024…
“Citizen Outreach has started sending new challenges. I’m not sure if other counties are receiving these, but wanted to ask if the SOS has guidance on what to do with them?”
But the Secretary of State – supposedly the chief elections officer for Nevada – didn’t respond. Instead, he had Laena St-Jules, a deputy attorney general, respond. She wrote the next day…
“In my view, these seem pretty far removed from the personal knowledge requirement, and I’m very happy to discuss why if helpful. I’m not sure how you want to handle it, but I took a pass at drafting something in case you agree with my assessment.”
The draft she inked…
“It appears the challenges submitted purport to be based on ineligibility due to a change in residence. However, the information submitted in the challenges is not sufficient to permit action at this time.
“NRS 293.547 and NAC 293.416(3) require a challenge to be made on the personal knowledge of the challenger, meaning ‘firsthand knowledge through experience or observation of the facts upon each ground that the challenge is based.’
“The challenges submitted rely not on personal knowledge of the challenger, but instead on statements of unnamed third-party individuals with no established or purported knowledge of the voter being challenged.”
Unbelievable.
Ms. Osborne knocked on the door of the house where the voter was registered. The current resident confirmed that the voter no longer lived there. And the Secretary of State and Attorney General for the State of Nevada say that’s STILL not good enough!
BACK TO COURT
So under the advice of the Secretary of State and Attorney General, the Carson City district attorney’s office rejected the challenges. Which led to Ms. Osborne filing a new lawsuit asking the court to direct the district attorney to investigate the challenges.
The hearing on the lawsuit was held in Carson City on Tuesday. I drove up to attend and support Ms. Osborne. Now get this…
While District Court Judge Kristen Luis asked about the arguments related to personal knowledge, the Secretary of State and Attorney General ended the hearing by arguing that Ms. Osborne did not have “standing.”
What???
Ms. Osborne filed a lawful challenge against voters who no longer live where they’re registered and had those challenges summarily rejected – and she doesn’t have “standing”?!!
As our attorney David O’Mara rightly noted, if Kelly Osborne doesn’t have “standing,” nobody else will ever have “standing.”
Judge Luis hasn’t ruled on the “standing” issue at the time of this newsletter. And until she does, the merits of this lawsuit remain unaddressed.
I’ll also note that Judge Luis – like the county clerks and district attorneys – also acknowledged that this is an area of law that she has limited experience with and has not had much time to learn the ins and outs of.
All the legal mumbo-jumbo aside, the fact is those half-dozen voters – who are currently on Nevada’s Active voter rolls even though they no longer live where they’re registered – are being kept on the voter rolls because of the Nevada Secretary of State and the Nevada Attorney General.
Ford and Aguilar are bending over BACKWARDS and pulling out all the stops to keep Nevada’s voter rolls dirty. I wonder why?
Again – and I really can’t stress this enough – don’t blame the local county clerks and district attorneys. A number of them wanted to process our challenges – and some did – but have since been THREATENED not to do so.
Get this…
LORD VADER HATH SPOKEN
In yet another private memo issued by the Secretary of State on October 18, 2024, to Nevada’s county clerks/registrars AND district attorneys, Mr. Aguilar wrote…
“I am deeply troubled that some counties appear to be failing to implement this office’s guidance, leading to potential violation of state and federal law. … Accordingly, I ask that you respond to this letter no later than Monday, October 21, 2024, to either confirm that you are complying and intend to comply with Nevada and federal law as outlined in this letter or explain your non-compliance and the steps you plan to take to remediate it.”
So under the circumstances, I understand why the DA’s and clerks are scared to process our challenges. But what I still don’t understand is why the SOS and AG are fighting SO HARD to keep the voter rolls dirty when they could so easily and responsibly be cleaned up.
But we’re not quitting.
Just so you know, I also filed a half-dozen Section 547 challenges of my own with the Clark County elections office of voters in my precinct on October 10, 2024 – within the required window.
My challenges simply stated: “The voter does not reside at the address listed above.”
They were submitted on one of the SOS’ two official challenge forms and signed “under penalty of perjury that the information provided in this document is true and correct to the best of my knowledge.”
When I submitted the challenges via email, I requested confirmation of receipt. I didn’t receive one.
So on October 18, 2024, I sent another email asking the election department to “confirm if these challenges were submitted to the district attorney.”
By October 21, 2024, I still had not received a response. So I sent another email asking if “my challenges were sent to the Clark County district attorney?”
On October 26, 2024, I finally received the following response…
“The challenges were not processed as they were not based on personal knowledge. The petitions were forwarded to the DA’s office on October 10, 2024. The DA’s office has advised the Election Department that they will not be bringing any proceedings in court as the challenges lack personal knowledge.”
HOO-BOY.
Here’s the thing: I never said what the source of my personal knowledge was.
The DA’s office just ASSUMED the challenges lacked “personal knowledge” without knowing for sure or even bothering to ask!
And let me assure you, after seeing and reading all the objections claimed by the Attorney General and the Secretary of State from our initial lawsuits, I absolutely, positively have “personal knowledge” as per their “guidance” to back up my challenges.
Yet they were rejected out of hand.
I smell another lawsuit coming.
BE LIKE GEORGE!
I’ll leave you with this for now…
George Washington’s early military career during the American Revolutionary War was marked by a series of defeats and challenges, which drew criticism from both the Continental Congress and some of his officers.
Despite these setbacks, he managed to turn the tide, ultimately securing victory and independence for the American colonies.
Washington’s early failures were critical in shaping his leadership style and the eventual success of the Revolutionary War. He adapted his tactics, focusing on defensive strategies and only fighting when conditions were favorable.
By the time he achieved victory at Yorktown in 1781, he had learned to balance offensive actions with preserving his army, which allowed the Continental Army to outlast the British in a war of attrition.
His ability to endure criticism, learn from his mistakes, and inspire loyalty among his troops ultimately made him the right leader for the Revolution. Washington’s story shows how persistence and adaptability can turn even the bleakest of situations into victory.
Well, like Gen. Washington, we’re taking some losses early in this war with the Secretary of State and Attorney General. But we’re learning from each defeat and will only get stronger and stronger as we continue pursuing cleaning up Nevada’s dirty voter files.
As actor Patric Knowles said to John Wayne in the Western movie classic Chisum, “Right will prevail, John. I know it will.”
So do I. We’re not about to give up. I hope you won’t either. We can’t continue doing this without your support. So please stick with us.
Onward!
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“Election integrity starts with clean voter rolls. That’s especially true in a state like Nevada, which automatically sends a mail ballot to every active voter listed on the roll.” – RNC Chairman Michael Whatley
The Pigpen Project is a project of Citizen Outreach Foundation, an IRS-approved 501(c)(3) grassroots organization founded in 1992. Donations are tax-deductible for federal income tax purposes.