Voter audit swells inactive ranks

After an audit and cleanup of the voter rolls, the total number of inactive voters has nearly doubled since the end of May.

Voter figures released on Sept. 1 by the Nevada Secretary of State’s Office showed there were 4,757 inactive voters in Douglas County, up from 2,416 on June 1.

The number of active voters in the county has dropped from 43,081 to 41,142.

Inactive voters are those who didn’t respond to a post card regarding their registration. Inactive voters may still cast a ballot but have to verify their information either online at registertovote.nv.gov or in person at the polls. They don’t receive either a sample or a regular ballot in the mail.

The increase in inactive voters appears to have occurred across the political spectrum, comparing totals between Aug. and Sept. 1.

Inactive Democrats increased by 18.6 percent. Inactive Republicans increased by 22.8 percent. Inactive nonpartisans increased by 34.8 percent.

According to figures on the Secretary of State’s web site, Republicans maintain a significant majority of Douglas County’s active voters, with 21,057, down from 22,870 the month before.

Nonpartisans lost 1,624 active voters, bringing them to 9,834, while Democrats dropped to 7,521 from 8,432.

The decrease in nonpartisan voters may be in part due to those who registered through the DMV changing to a preferred parties.

As part of an effort to comply with the 2024 National Voter Registration Act, Clerk Treasurer Amy Burgans sent out 3,434 confirmation cards to voters whose election mail, including ballots was undeliverable.

Of those 217 voters said they’d moved, 590 voters were confirmed or updated their information, and 2,627 voters were moved from active to inactive status.

“As Nevada prepares to play a pivotal role in the upcoming electoral landscape, it is vital that we set the standard for election security, transparency, and integrity,” said Democracy Defense Project Nevada Co-Chairman former Gov. Brian Sandoval. “The thorough clean-up of the state’s voter rolls means 138,000 ballots will not be mailed to people who are no longer in Nevada and helps strengthen the integrity of our elections.”

Douglas was one of the Nevada counties sued by the Republican National Committee over voter rolls in April.

On Thursday, the Republicans filed another lawsuit claiming that 3,987 people statewide listed in a DMV noncitizen file cast a ballot in the 2020 general election. In 2020, President Donald Trump lost Nevada to then Vice President Joe Biden by 33,596 votes, which reflected only 2.39 percent of the total 1.4 million votes cast.