Despite lies about voter fraud, early voting has been largely smooth so far in Nevada

Amid ongoing lies and conspiracies about voter fraud from far-right circles, Nevadans are expressing confidence in the state’s election system and those involved in counting the votes. 

Las Vegas resident Amy Murray isn’t worried about the integrity of the voting process in Nevada. 

Murray, a Spanish teacher, has already cast her ballot, voting early at the Skye Canyon Community Center. 

“I believe in the system,” Murray said Wednesday. “I’m not the least bit concerned about voter fraud or anything about voting machines not working correctly.” 

Despite persistent rhetoric from far-right circles, Murray doesn’t believe the 2020 US presidential election — which was won by President Joe Biden — had any measurable level of fraud. 

A 2021 analysis by the Associated Press found fewer than 475 possible cases of voter fraud out of 25.5 million total votes cast in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin in 2020, nowhere near enough to affect the outcome of the election. Even the right-wing Heritage Foundation documented only 24 cases of fraud from that year nationwide. 

But there are still those who are convinced that forces are conspiring to stop former President Donald Trump from being elected again, as he was in 2016. 

Among the most popular conspiracy theories floating around, according to recent reporting by the Associated Press, include unfounded claims that voting machines are changing votes and ineligible people are voting.

Athar Haseebullah, executive director of the ACLU of Nevada, says he’s heard about those conspiracy theories and others. 

“I think much of the misinformation has been spewed by certain conservative actors on a national level,” Haseebullah said. “We know people are talking about elections being tampered with, computers being hacked, and we know that observers on the ground have been looking for cords for voting machines, even though we know none of the machines are connected to the internet.” 

Haseebullah said he can confirm that some observers at polling places have “Trump 47” checklists, which note what they’re supposed to look for. 

“We’ve witnessed people asking for serial numbers for voting machines,” Haseebullah said. “There are a lot of narratives out there right now to effectively manufacture controversy. Some of this is highly coordinated.” 

According to a recent Associated Press story, Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, a Republican, called dealing with misinformation “playing whack-a-mole with the truth.” 

Haseebullah said it’s been largely the same here in Nevada, where Republicans have claimed that thousands of noncitizens are voting, even as the evidence suggests many — and possibly all — of those individuals were naturalized citizens by the time they voted. 

In Nevada, an undocumented immigrant can get a license to legally drive. But, Haseebullah said, that doesn’t mean that person automatically will receive a ballot to vote, though he said lies to that effect are being spread. 

“It’s irresponsible to spread disinformation like that,” Haseebullah said. “It’s not like there’s some big conspiracy happening at the (Nevada) Department of Motor Vehicles. It’s all disinformation.”

Sondra Cosgrove is a professor of social sciences at the College of Southern Nevada and the executive director of Vote Nevada, a non-profit voting advocacy organization. 

She said, with just a few days until Election Day, she hasn’t heard as much on the conspiracy front as she thought she might. 

But she also warned that a recent Nevada Supreme Court ruling could lead to more claims of unfounded fraud down the road. 

On Monday, the court ruled that the state can count mailed ballots that arrive without a postmark up to three days after Election Day on Tuesday. 

The Republican National Committee and other supporters of former President Trump fought against such a decision. 

“This may reignite some of the conspiracies around votes being ‘found’ after Election Day to change the outcomes in close races,” Cosgrove said. “Also, if we have thousands of ballots that need a signature cure to be validated after Election Day, it may look like thousands of votes are being added.” 

That, of course, wouldn’t be true, though it could provide a path for conspiracy theorists to cry foul. 

According to the Nevada Secretary of State’s Office, well over 30% of the state’s 1.9 million registered voters had cast a ballot as of the middle of the week. That means that hundreds of thousands of Nevadans have already voted with just under a week left until Nov. 5. 

One of those hundreds of thousands, Amy Murray, said she didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary when she voted. 

“There’s nothing at all that makes me suspicious in any way about this election,” Murray said. “When I went to vote, all I saw was volunteers who, I assume, believe in the system that we have in place and are working to protect it.”