LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Jim Marchant, a candidate for Nevada secretary of state, told FOX5 he is running because he believes the state does not have “fair and transparent elections” and wants to implement a system “that the people can actually trust.”
“I don’t think we have fair and transparent elections right now,” Marchant said. “And I want to get to the bottom of it. And I want to put in a system that the people can actually trust and that’s transparent.”
Claims about past elections
Marchant said he began investigating what he described as election fraud after losing a 2020 congressional race and a 2022 race for secretary of state against Cisco Aguilar.
“Do you really believe Joe Biden got 81 million votes in 2020, more than Obama, more than any other president ever?” Marchant said. “Just that alone indicates that we’ve got a serious problem.”
Marchant said he brought in people with technology backgrounds to examine voting machines after the 2020 election.
“We went to work and discovered how these machines are, can be corrupted,” Marchant said. “And we’ve proven it. I’ve got the proof.”
Marchant said he sent certified letters to the New York Times and CNN offering to show them evidence, but said the outlets did not respond.
“They know that we do have the proof,” Marchant said. “I think we’re going to see something here pretty soon that he’s going to do with it,” he said, referring to President Trump.
Asked whether he would revisit the 2020 and 2022 elections if elected, Marchant said no.
“I just want to go forward and fix our system to where it’s fair and transparent,” Marchant said. “If somebody else wants to do that, I can’t control that, but I won’t do anything like that.”
Precinct-level hand counting
Marchant said his priority would be implementing precinct-level voting and hand counting of paper ballots.
“I want to go to precinct level voting, precinct level hand counting on paper ballots that have anti-counterfeit measures built into it, because right now we don’t track our ballots,” Marchant said.
He said the largest precinct in Nevada has fewer than 5,000 votes and could be counted “in a matter of hours.” Marchant said he has previously conducted hand counts in Pahrump and in mock systems in other parts of the country.
Marchant said the current system takes up to eight days to certify results. He said a hand-count system would produce results the night of the election.
Asked whether fraud-resistant ballots would include anti-counterfeiting technology, Marchant said some ballots include technology built into the paper that can be identified through scanners, but said serializing ballots would be “a step forward.” He said Clark County Registrar Joe Gloria told him the county does not track ballots, including those returned as undeliverable.
Mail-in voting and re-registration
Marchant said he wants to eliminate mass mail-in voting but preserve traditional absentee ballots for voters who request them, including military members, people who are ill and those who will be traveling.
“We want to keep the traditional absentee ballots that you request,” Marchant said. “You have to request.”
Marchant said he supports requiring all Nevada voters to re-register, saying it would address what he called problems with the state’s voter rolls.
“It’s going to get rid of our dirty voter rolls immediately,” Marchant said. “We’re just going to wipe the database clean and have everybody re-register.”
He said he supports proof-of-citizenship requirements for registration and voter ID, including Question 7 on the Nevada ballot.
Asked whether he believes immigrants without legal status are voting in Nevada, Marchant said, “I do,” but when asked how he knows, he said, “I don’t.” He said President Trump’s team has conducted investigations and “strongly suspect it,” citing a Department of Homeland Security list he said Aguilar has declined to compare against state voter rolls.
“We don’t know for sure who is and how many,” Marchant said.
Single-day voting, corporation registration
Marchant said he supports single-day voting and disagreed with the idea that votes could not be counted in a single day, citing the size of the state’s largest precinct.
Marchant also said he wants to repeal Nevada’s commerce tax, which he said has driven up the cost of registering a corporation in the state from about $125 in the early 2000s to $600 to $800 currently. He said the tax, passed in 2015, reduced Nevada’s competitiveness as a state for business incorporation compared with Delaware.
“It inhibits economic development because they have to pay tax on revenue, not gross profits,” Marchant said.
Marchant said implementing his proposed changes would take time and require cooperation from lawmakers.
“I’ve got to be patient and let it go through the process,” Marchant said. “It’s going to take a few election cycles.”
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