Silver State Times

Nevada is hardly alone in its dereliction of removing the deceased from the voter rolls. A year-old report by the Public Interest Legal Foundation showed that the names of 349,773 deceased appeared on voter rolls in 41 of 42 states scrutinized. 

The study by the Indianapolis-based group also shows that 6,718 of the deceased were credited with voting in the 2018 general election, which the group said, “raises serious concerns over the integrity of states’ voter files as election officials anticipate a surge in mail-in voting" for the 2020 general elections.

Elections analyst Gina Swoboda, executive director of the Voter Reference Foundation, said states and local elections officials vary in the degree of diligence, and the kinds of practices, they employ to remove the deceased from the voter rolls.

“Some take if very seriously and are very diligent in scouring the obituaries and using other methods to keep the rolls updated,” Swoboda, a former Arizona elections official under two administrations, told the Silver State Times. “Others don’t make it a priority at all.”

In Nevada, a comparison of death and voter registration records by Silver State Times identified at least 38 registered voters, who died in December 2020, but who were still on Nevada's active voter file as of Feb. 3. Some of the deaths garnered statewide publicity.

Former Las Vegas Mayor Ron Lurie’s death on Dec. 22, 2020, at 79, "reverberated across the state," the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

Alan Bondelid, 70, was robbed and shot to death in his driveway in southeast Las Vegas on Dec. 27, 2020. A Las Vegas couple was arrested the next day on murder charges, 8 News Now reported.

As of Feb. 3, both names remained on Nevada’s list of active voters, Silver State Times reported.

But in response to an earlier Voter Reference Foundation audit that found more votes counted than actual votes cast, Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske attributed the discrepancy in part to the deletion of voter histories of those who had passed away.

Each month, Cegavske's office is supposed to provide "a report of potential deceased voters to counties via their partnerships with (state of Nevada) Vital Statistics and Health and Human Services," according to a document from the Nevada Association of County Clerks and Election Officials.

"Reports are provided each time there is a potential match," according to the document. "... Upon verification by counties that the records are a match, the voter registration record is canceled."

Counties are also allowed to cancel the record of a deceased voter "when they have personal knowledge of the death."

"This can come in the form of a death notice being provided to the clerk’s office or a surviving family member completing a form prescribed by the clerk/registrar’s office," according to the association's document. "A clerk/registrar cannot cancel a record of a potential deceased voter without proof."

Swoboda echoed the comments in the Public Interest Legal Foundation report that it’s vital for election officials to keep their voter rolls up to date, especially with the expanded use of mail-in ballots.

“It is absolutely essential that routine voter list maintenance, including ongoing removals of the deceased from the voter rolls, is a priority for all election offices," she said. "Where there are no hard timelines and clearly stated procedures for removals of the deceased codified by law, it is at the discretion of the official. Priorities change with each administration. If people want to ensure that voter list maintenance is performed well, these activities need to be set by statute and the process to remove the deceased voter from the rolls needs to be made clear to the public.”

President Joe Biden carried Nevada in the 2020 presidential election.