Seven Justice Department Subpoenas Hang Over Nevada Election Chief’s Battleground Re-Election Fight

CARSON CITY, Nev., Oct. 16 (TodayViralUSA) — Nevada’s top election official received seven Justice Department subpoenas for voter information between June and early September, public records show, a federal pressure campaign that has spilled into his tight re-election race in one of the country’s most closely watched battleground states.

Democratic Secretary of State Francisco “Cisco” Aguilar told Reuters he views the subpoenas as a deliberate attempt by the Trump administration to weaken his bid for a second term and shape who will oversee Nevada’s ballots in the 2028 presidential election. “If they can take me out in ’26, they have control in ’28,” he said.

A rematch with an election denier

Aguilar faces Republican Jim Marchant, whom he narrowly defeated in 2022 and who falsely claims the 2020 election was rigged. Marchant welcomed the federal scrutiny, saying voters are “tired of not trusting their election system,” while offering no evidence of fraud under Aguilar. Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo has not endorsed either candidate.

The first subpoena arrived on June 16, while Aguilar’s office was working informally with the FBI on routine election security, he said. Three more came on Sept. 1 and 2. The Justice Department said it does not confirm or comment on grand jury subpoenas and declined to address claims of political motivation.

Aguilar said responding to the demands has consumed his schedule, cutting his fundraising calls from as much as three hours a day to roughly one a week, and that some donors pulled back over fears for their businesses. No other Democratic secretary of state, including in Arizona, is known to have received similar subpoenas, according to the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State.

Disputed noncitizen claims

The Department of Homeland Security has said as many as 16,000 noncitizens may be on Nevada’s voter rolls. In meetings, DHS officials told the state it had confirmed only 185 such cases, according to emails and a video reviewed by Reuters; Nevada officials said their records showed all 185 were citizens. A DHS spokesperson said at least 2,000 names on the original list have since been found to be noncitizens, a figure Aguilar says the agency has not backed with credible evidence.

The Justice Department has sued 30 states and the District of Columbia for voter data and has lost 26 of those cases, including against Nevada. Noncitizen voting is already illegal in every state for federal and state elections.

Analysts at Sabato’s Crystal Ball shifted the race toward Aguilar in September, though columnist Louis Jacobson said the federal spotlight could either raise doubts among some voters or cast Aguilar as a defender against Washington overreach. “Bring it,” Aguilar said. “They don’t scare me.”