FBI serves seven Justice Department subpoenas on Nevada's election office for voter information
The office of Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar confirmed that it had received seven voter-related Justice Department subpoenas from the FBI over the previous three months. The subpoenas had not been previously reported.
What happened
It is unclear what information the Justice Department is seeking in the subpoenas. Aguilar, a Democrat, said the federal administration is inundating election offices with investigations and questions ahead of the election, and making sweeping claims of election fraud to the public before any investigation is done. CNN reports that the Department of Homeland Security this week began a surge in its efforts to investigate voter fraud in nine states, including Nevada.
The Justice Department sent the subpoenas on behalf of the FBI, and it is unclear what information it is seeking. Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar said: "The federal administration is inundating election offices with investigations and questions ahead of the election, and making sweeping claims of election fraud to the public before any investigation is done. We will continue standing up for Nevada voters and remain focused on running a safe, secure and transparent election this fall." Aguilar had previously called the federal request for voter information an attempt to intimidate Nevada into turning over protected voter data. The subpoenas come while the department is suing Nevada for its full unredacted voter registration list, which would include names, addresses, birthdates, driver's licence information and partial Social Security numbers, and in the same week that Homeland Security began a surge in its efforts to investigate voter fraud in nine states, including Nevada. A federal court dismissed the Justice Department's lawsuit last month, finding it could not demand that sensitive information under the Civil Rights Act of 1960. The office's confirmations were given over two days: to The Nevada Independent on Thursday 3 September, and to CNN and Democracy Docket on Friday 4 September. No source gives a service date for any of the seven subpoenas.
Why it matters
Earlier federal demands for state voter rolls arrived as requests a state could decline. A subpoena is compulsory process, and answering it is not optional. That shift — from asking to compelling — is what makes this a different kind of federal reach into a state's administration of an election it is about to run.