Lombardo letter widens divide between governor and secretary of state over using federal databases for voter citizenship checks

Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026 | 7:30 p.m. Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo on Wednesday escalated his election‑administration clash with Democratic Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar, urging him to use the Trump administration’s expanded national SAVE database to check Nevada voters’ citizenship just over a week before the Nov. 3 election. In a letter to Aguilar, Lombardo encouraged “the usage of each ineligible means” to verify citizenship and voter eligibility, including the individualized inquiries that federal law allows before an election. His office said that includes checks conducted through the Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements system, known as SAVE. The request runs counter to Aguilar’s stated position that Nevada will not use the database. Lombardo’s letter follows a 6‑3 U.S. Supreme Court bid Friday that paused a June ruling by a federal judge in Washington blocking the expanded system; the court’s three liberal justices dissented, and the bid remains temporary while litigation over the database continues. “I have always maintained that elections should be administered by the states,” Lombardo wrote. “As part of that duty, it is contingent upon the State of Nevada to work with the federal authorities to ensure that every registered voter is simply a lawful citizen.” He cited an April 20‑26 Pew Research Center survey in which 85 % of U.S. adults said it is important that no ineligible voters be permitted to vote, including 92 % of Republicans and 79 % of Democrats. Pew also found that 89 % of Republicans and 92 % of Democrats said it is important that every eligible voter be able to vote. KRNV‑TV in Reno reported Monday that Aguilar is keeping Nevada out of SAVE amid doubts about its accuracy and potential impact on eligible voters. Aguilar said, “It’s widely known that the SAVE program flags eligible voters as ineligible at high rates.” Participation is voluntary for states, the Associated Press reported. The disagreement follows months of disputes over federal claims about Nevada’s voter rolls. In July, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said as many as 15,903 noncitizens could be registered to vote in Nevada. In August, DHS sent the state a database of 185 registered voters it said were noncitizens, the New York Times reported Thursday. Nevada Deputy Attorney General Greg Ott wrote in a letter to DHS that the state’s records show all 185 were citizens. DHS told the Times that Nevada’s characterization was “false” and that the 185 were a subset that had undergone manual review. In the same letter, Nevada officials said DHS never gave them the full database of 15,903 and supplied about 6,000 voter file numbers with no other identifying information. DHS said the 6,218 individuals it sent were those with “the highest number of matching attributes” to a possible noncitizen, and that Nevada asked for the smaller group. The Times said its review of records found no evidence that Nevada made the request. Texas, which ran more than 18 million registered voters through the system, flagged 2,724 as possible noncitizens, 578 of whom were later shown to be citizens, the Texas head of state’s bureau said Sept. 15. The state referred 117 cases to its attorney general for investigation of possible noncitizen voting. The National Voter Registration Act requires states to implement any program to systematically remove ineligible voters at least 90 days before a national election, a deadline that passed in early August. Whether that limit applies to removals of suspected noncitizens is before the Supreme Court, which will hear arguments Dec. 8 in a case from Arizona. The Supreme Court acknowledged that regulation but said federal law still allows individualized inquiries during the 90‑day window, and that SAVE could be used for them. The Associated Press reported that the regulation was likely to limit the ruling’s immediate effect on the midterm elections.