Secretary of state is the third highest statewide office following governor and lieutenant governor. The position handles state legislative tasks like record keeping and business registration, but over the last several years has come under the public eye for its role in election supervision. This person also serves on the State Board of Prison Commissioners and the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Governing Board.
When it comes to supervising elections, Aguilar supports Nevada’s two weeks of early voting and voting by mail. He has stood by his assertion that the state’s elections are secure. During a forum, he said voter ID, or showing proof of identification to vote is a “solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.” Nevadans don’t need to show ID in most cases to vote.
Aguilar has said one of his first priorities is introducing legislation to make it a felony to harass or intimidate election workers and volunteers. Heightened security concerns have followed former President Donald Trump’s claims of a rigged-election in 2020.
Marchant supports voter ID laws, has expressed distrust for voting machines, and led the push for hand-counting paper ballots. Rural Nye County heeded that call. He also founded a coalition to help elect other MAGA Republicans to the secretary of state in other states. Those candidates lost in other battleground states such as Arizona and Michigan.
Nevada’s current Republican Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske has continuously pushed back on false claims of a rigged election, saying there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in Nevada. Cegavske was censured from the state Republican party due to her pushing back against the “Big Lie.”
