Secretary of state talks voter registration fraud

Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske stopped in Pahrump on Jan. 20 to talk about voter registration fraud.

Cegavske said she goes around the state to learn from county clerks if any fraudulent forms have been entered into the system.

“The registration forms are being fraudulently applied (for) and they do it under perjury of law, so that’s what’s going on in the state and that’s what we are trying to clean up,” Cegavske said to a small crowd at the Nye County Commission ChambersFriday.

Prior to the last year’s election, Cegavske’s office worked with Nevada county clerks to make sure the equipment could withstand the election. She said everything went smoothly, with the exception of voter registration fraud that she had seen.

“I have no proof of anybody who voted illegally in the state of Nevada, there’s no proof at all,” she said. “But we do have proof of illegal registration forms, and that has been a real big issue, not only in our state, but across the nation.”

Tina Marie Parks from Pahrump was arrested in July by the Election Integrity Task Force on 11 felony charges related to violating election laws. Initial charges ranged from intimidation of voters to perjury. Parks is scheduled for a sentencing hearing on March 17.

The Nevada Secretary of State office submitted a Bill Draft Request to ensure that participants in voter registration are trained and certified. The bill expected to be considered during this year’s Legislative session.

“What I’m proposing is we have a bill out of the secretary of state’s office to make sure that not only are you educated on it, but that you have to be trained and certified to go out and collect signatures or to do the voter registration forms,” Cegavske said. “You have to be trained and you have to be certified.”

The idea has received bi-partisan support in the Nevada Legislature, she added.

“The thing that I’m excited about is I have non-partisan support,” she said. “The Democrats, Republicans, everybody, have come together and they are all very supportive of this idea, because we for too long have had people coming out of the woodwork and saying that they are an organization that can gather signatures or do the voter registration but they are not trained.”

Cegavske said that her office is currently designing classes so clerks around the state will be retrained to give education on voter registration.

“We are looking at possibly having something online, but mostly everything will be in person and you get it from the clerks themselves,” she said.

“I just think it’s a great way for us to go, you can’t come into our state unless you had the training. You can’t collect signatures or have the forms filled out. So, I think that will help us a lot,” she said.

Cegavske also said her office issued some warnings for those who were gathering signatures and didn’t know about a 100-feet rule at the election centers.

“We didn’t have any arrests in the state this year, which was great, but we did have people that we had to go out and warn about what our laws are,” Cegavske said. “And that’s another thing that we want to make sure is that when these groups bring people in that they tell them, ‘These are the laws and you could get arrested, you can have a penalty, you can have a fine, if you don’t obey state law.’”

Contact reporter Daria Sokolova at dsokolova@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @dariasokolova77