Las Vegas resident sues Nevada secretary of state to obtain records
A Las Vegas resident filed a lawsuit Friday against Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar, alleging his office violated Nevada’s public records law.
Chuck Muth, a Republican and president of the conservative Citizen Outreach Foundation, argues that the secretary of state’s office wrongly withheld documents and asks a court to require the office to provide the records.
The Citizen Outreach Foundation has long challenged the state’s voter rolls, and as part of that effort Muth filed an election integrity violations report against a voter in March 2024, claiming the person voted both in Nevada by mail and in Texas during the 2022 election.
According to the lawsuit filed in Carson City, the secretary of state’s office told Muth his complaint was forwarded to investigators, who interviewed the voter. This month, the secretary of state’s office said it finished its review and closed the file, but it did not state what the outcome was.
On Nov. 24, Muth filed a public records request asking for “any and all documents relating to the investigation.” He alleges that the secretary of state’s office has not been forthcoming with public documents pertaining to the case.
“It’s been like pulling teeth trying to get the information out of the secretary of state’s office so that we would have a better idea on how to proceed in the future with our efforts to help clean up the voter rolls,” Muth told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
In response to the lawsuit, the secretary of state’s office said it is committed to transparency and adherence to the law and that it looks forward to defending those principles in court.
“The Office will have no further comment on ongoing litigation,” the office said in a statement.
Details of the lawsuit
Muth claims the secretary of state’s office was slow to respond to the request and failed to respond in five business days, a requirement under Nevada law.
On Dec. 5 the office advised Muth that it needed more time to complete the request, giving an expected date of Jan. 10, according to the complaint. Nearly a month later, the secretary of state’s office extended the date to March 13.
The secretary of state’s office returned some records March 13 that described the voter’s voting history but noted that other records were withheld “based on attorney-client privilege and personal privacy interest,” according to the complaint.
Muth retorted that the records he sought were not privileged or confidential and requested them again.
The secretary of state’s office responded by acknowledging that several documents requested were not confidential and said it was doing a “search and review” of records to determine if any records existed, according to the complaint. It continued to extend the date that it expected to provide records, according to the complaint.
On June 6, the secretary of state’s office provided some additional documents, including a transcript of the interview its investigator conducted with the voter, a registered Republican, who Muth alleged had voted twice.
From that transcript, Muth learned about other documents that pertained to his request that he was not given, including letters sent to the voter and the report the investigator wrote.
He also learned that the secretary of state’s office received information about the matter through the Electronic Registration Information Center, a nonpartisan partnership with 24 states and Washington, D.C., to share voter registration data, but he did not receive that information.
“Every time they give you one record, then you got to find another,” Muth told the Review-Journal. “And plus, we don’t even know what records they may have that haven’t been provided.”
The secretary of state’s office informed Muth that it referred the case to the attorney general’s office in May 2024, and a month later the attorney general’s office told the secretary of state it declined to prosecute. Muth said he will file requests with the attorney general’s office to find out why it declined to prosecute the voter.
According to a transcript of the investigator’s interview, the voter admitted the signature on his mail ballot was his and that he also voted in Texas, though he said he didn’t intend to vote twice.
In his lawsuit, Muth argues that government records are presumed public and that nondisclosure is the exception. He argues that the secretary of state should have redacted confidential information, rather than withhold most of the case file.
Contact Jessica Hill at jehill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jess_hillyeah on X.