KVIG Informative

A law that let military families and their children vote in Nevada for 15 years is now the subject of a Republican lawsuit that could remove voters from the rolls before November.

The Republican National Committee, the Nevada Republican Party and Secretary of State candidate Jim Marchant filed suit in Carson City’s First Judicial District Court, naming Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar, the Nevada State Democratic Party and the Democratic National Committee as defendants, according to the complaint.

At issue is a Nevada law, passed unanimously by the Legislature in 2011 and signed by then-Gov. Brian Sandoval, that allows U.S. citizens born abroad to register and vote in Nevada if their parent’s last U.S. address was in the state — even if the voter has never set foot here. The law was written to protect military families stationed overseas.

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The lawsuit argues the provision conflicts with the Nevada Constitution’s residency requirement and claims the law dilutes lawful votes because so-called never-resident voters tend to favor Democratic candidates, according to the complaint.

Aguilar’s office rejected that framing in a statement, saying children born overseas should not be punished because a parent served in the military or was stationed abroad, and that Nevada has a responsibility to protect the voting access of military families.

It is not clear how many Nevada voters would be affected. Nationally, an estimated 250,000 overseas ballots were counted in the 2024 general election under similar state laws, according to the Federal Voting Assistance Program. Similar laws allowing never-resident voters exist in at least 37 other states.

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The Nevada suit is one of at least seven the Republican National Committee has filed against overseas-voter laws this year, with mixed results — dismissed in Pennsylvania and Michigan, upheld on appeal in North Carolina.

Whatever happens in a Carson City courtroom will land in the middle of a Secretary of State’s race where Aguilar’s own opponent is a plaintiff in the case seeking to remove voters before he’s even elected to oversee them.