LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – The Nevada Secretary of State’s Office has issued a report and statement on the reported discrepancies in voting history following the Presidential Preference Primary.
On Feb. 18, reports emerged of voters who did not participate in the Presidential Preference Primary finding themselves marked as “Mail Ballot Counted” on the Sec. of State’s website. State and county officials announced immediately that an investigation would be launched. By Feb. 20, officials announced that all discrepancies had been fixed.
On Thursday, Sec. Francisco Aguilar released the following statement:
Aguilar also said the issue had nothing to do with the tabulation of votes or the results of any election. He added that there is “no evidence of widespread voter fraud in our state, now or ever.”
Election officials said that the issue resulted from a “miscommunication in code, based on state and counties interpreting the same data in different ways.” In their investigation, election officials found that the problem was that the state voter database was “hard-coded to interpret a certain vote history code in one way before and on Friday, Feb. 16, the 10th day after the election… and to interpret the same code another way after that date.”
More specifically, voters who had been sent a mail-in ballot were marked as “MB” in the system, and following the election, the system began to interpret “MB” as Mail Ballot Counted.
This change, according to Sec. of State, was a result of a statute that requires all received votes to be canvassed by election officials to confirm the results. According to the statute, this must be done no later than the 10th day after the election.
12 counties in Nevada reported that the issue was identified as a “single setting, several menus deep,” but was fixed by removing the “MB” code from voters who had not returned a mail-in ballot.
In Clark County, two files generated after canvassing were sent to the state in an incorrect format, which the state system could not read appropriately. Officials say this was remedied quickly by Monday, Feb. 19 at 5 p.m.
In Washoe County, which reportedly uses its own election management system, the issue revolved around an adjustment to the source code that “had the potential for error.” This issue was remedied by Monday, Feb. 19 at 8 p.m.
The state GOP says it is also actively in communication with the Secretary of State’s Office to investigate the alleged irregularities.
“We take these reports very seriously,” stated Michael McDonald, Chairman of the Nevada Republican Party. “The cornerstone of our Republic is the trust and confidence of the American people in the electoral process. Any indication of irregularities must be thoroughly investigated to ensure the integrity of our elections.”
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