Republicans are challenging a Nevada law that allows U.S. citizens born abroad to vote in the state despite never living in the country.
The Republican National Committee, the Nevada Republican Party and Jim Marchant, Republican nominee for Secretary of State, filed a lawsuit in the First Judicial District Court in Carson City late last month.
Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar, the Nevada State Democratic Party and the Democratic National Committee were listed as defendants.
Under current law, a U.S. citizen who’s never resided in the United States is eligible to vote in Nevada as long as the state is their parents’ last legal address and the absentee voter hasn’t registered to vote in another state.
“Nevada Democrats are enforcing a policy that allows certain people who have never lived in Nevada to vote in Nevada elections,” said RNC Chairman Joe Gruters in a statement. “The RNC is taking action to defend Nevada’s Constitution and ensure Nevada elections are decided only by eligible Nevada voters.”
The Las Vegas Review-Journal obtained a copy of the complaint from the RNC.
Nevada law dates back to 2011
The Nevada law enacted the federal Uniformed Military and Overseas Absentee Voters Act through the Legislature. No lawmaker voted against it, and then-Gov. Brian Sandoval, a Republican, signed 2011’s Assembly Bill 100 into law.
Democrats counter that the legal challenge seeks to disenfranchise citizens who live abroad.
“The lawsuit challenging Nevada’s protections for certain overseas voters is an attack on the voting rights of eligible U.S. citizens living abroad, and military families whose lives are shaped by service and sacrifice,” Aguilar said in a statement.
“Children born overseas should not be punished because their parents served, worked, or were stationed outside the United States,” he added. “Nevada will not turn its back on military families simply because their service took them away from home.”
Absentee voters are required to reaffirm their eligibility every election cycle, according to the secretary of state’s office.
‘Bona fide Nevada voters’
Republicans say the law conflicts with Nevada’s Constitution.
“Nevada may extend registration and absentee voting procedures to qualified Nevada voters abroad, including military and overseas citizens who previously resided in Nevada and remain Nevada domiciliaries for voting purposes,” attorneys wrote in the lawsuit. “But Nevada may not create bona fide Nevada voters out of individuals who have never resided in Nevada, solely by reference to a parent’s historical voting eligibility.”
Added the complaint: “Residency is not inherited and cannot be established by proxy.”
It wasn’t immediately clear how many people are allowed to cast ballots in Nevada under the law.
Citing the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, the Overseas Vote Foundation, a nonprofit, reported that 1.2 million ballots were distributed to American citizens abroad in 2020. About 890,000 of those ballots were counted during that election, the nonprofit said.
The lawsuit alleged that the Nevada law harms Republican candidates because so-called never-resident voters overwhelmingly favor Democratic candidates.
“Plaintiffs— and the public— will suffer irreparable harm absent injunctive relief, including the dilution of lawful votes and the tainting of election outcomes,” the complaint said.
Democrats added to lawsuit
The complaint added the DNC and the Nevada State Democratic Party as defendants out of an abundance of caution, because the District Court previously said that if a ruling is set to affect a major party, then that party is an indispensable party to such lawsuit, according to the lawsuit.
“After losing their battle to restrict mail-in ballots with the Supreme Court (last) week, Republicans are now trying to disenfranchise lawful Nevada voters — the spouses and children of active military, while they are serving overseas, during an election cycle that will determine the direction of the country,” wrote Hilary Barrett, executive director of the Nevada Democratic Party in a statement. “This disgraceful lawsuit is already failing in other states where the GOP has filed it, and it will fail here, too.”
She was referencing a higher court ruling that upheld laws in states like Nevada that allow officials to count mail ballots received days after Election Day.
Aguilar’s office said it hadn’t been served with the complaint as of Monday. The office of Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford is defending the secretary of state. It declined comment because the lawsuit is ongoing, an office policy.
The DNC said that Republicans have filed similar lawsuits challenging state constitutions in blue and red states.
The lawsuits have had mixed results with courts in Pennsylvania and Michigan throwing them out, the DNC said. An appellate court in North Carolina ruled in favor of Republicans.
Republicans are asking the Nevada court to declare the law’s provision unconstitutional; to bar Aguilar’s office from processing registration from never-resident voters; to cancel registration of such voters, and to update the state’s websites and guidance to reflect those changes, according to the complaint.
Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com.
