(Chuck Muth) – Here’s a cheerful update on our Pigpen Project to clean up Nevada’s voter files…
As noted previously, we’ve established a good working relationship with the new Clark County Registrar of Voters (ROV) and have already successfully gotten one voter who no longer lives at the address where she’s registered moved from “Active” status to “Inactive.”
The reason this is important is that only “Active” registered voters will automatically be mailed a ballot next year. “Inactive” voters can still vote, but they won’t automatically receive a ballot and must verify their eligibility before getting one.
Now…
On Thursday I received confirmation from the ROV that a “dead” voter we reported had also been removed permanently.
Again, some will gripe that it’s “only one voter.” But by going slowly and thoroughly, we’re learning what’s required to successfully move a larger number of voters once the database program we’re setting up is ready to roll – hopefully in the next couple of weeks.
And in case you’re planning on helping us with this project once we really get the ball rolling, here are some things we learned from this latest example to keep in mind…
The report we received from a Nevada voter was that three of her relatives – mother, father, brother – had passed away but were still getting ballots. So we looked into it.
We were initially provided the names, but not the mailing addresses. And this is important since it’s quite possible a number of “Joe Smith” voters have the same name – especially since a number of voters can be “Sr” and “Jr.” – but not the same address.
We also learned how important it is to get the full, legal name of voters – including middle name or initial if possible. If we went looking for “Hank” we might not find him since he’s registered as “Henry.” Ditto “Joe” and “Joseph.” Etc.
And if at all possible, get the voter’s date of birth – even if all you can get is the year.
In the example we just processed, the voter’s deceased’s mother and father had the EXACT same birthday in 1933. That might otherwise raise a “red flag,” but in researching the files we discovered the voter file was accurate.
The husband and wife had, in fact, been born on the exact same day. What are the odds?
In addition to the voter’s mother and father being deceased, so is her brother. Her father was “Joe Smith Sr.” while her brother was “Joe Smith Jr.” (names changed to protect confidentiality) at the same address.
This is why you must verify, verify and verify. If we’d alleged “fraud” based solely on identical birthdays or same name, we’d have egg on our faces.
Now, the next thing to keep in mind as you research the anomalies you’re investigating is to see if the suspicious voter is still on the CURRENT voter file or if they’ve already been removed.
Indeed, it’s quite possible that some Nevada voters received ballots back in November but were removed from the rolls when the election department did its last “purge” in January.
As it turns out, this voter’s mother and father had been cancelled a couple years ago, so they *shouldn’t* have received ballots. But since the voter didn’t keep the ballots – and it was confirmed that neither are recorded as having voted in 2022 – there’s no way to confirm that they did.
However, the ROV did shed some light on a possible explanation that doesn’t involve “fraud.”
As the ROV mentioned in an email to me, “there are non-government groups that send out mailers that some residents mistakenly believe are from a government agency. That could be happening here.”
Good point.
Most of you probably saw mailers last year that looked official but weren’t. In that case, whoever did the mailings probably used an out-of-date voter file list. So again, this is something to keep in mind and confirm before popping off with unsubstantiated “fraud” claims.
Lastly, the voter also submitted a report on a neighbor who had died and received a ballot last November.
We checked and confirmed the voter was deceased and did vote in the 2022 general election. HOWEVER, he didn’t pass away until two months AFTER the election, so no “fraud” took place and we didn’t file a report.
Of the four, only one was researched and found to be a possible problem – the voter’s deceased brother. We confirmed his name, his address, his date of death, and his listing on the current voter file as “Active.”
We reported the registration to the ROV with all our back-up information and were informed yesterday that the ROV had “cancelled his registration.”
Yes, these are *only* two successes.
But they prove that cleaning up the voter files CAN be done. However, it has to be done right. That takes work. And it takes time. Which the GOP in Nevada didn’t do in 2020.
Anyway, now that we’ve learned exactly what the ROV needs to take action, we’re going to be in a position to submit far more reports in the near future once we get this project automated with the new software in development.
Once we have the process down and technology in place, we’ll open this project up so those of you who want to help will be able to do so on your own. Stay tuned, Batfans.
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“Elected officials of all political stripes should want to prevent election fraud.” – Las Vegas Sun, 5/26/23