Cisco Aguilar, Democratic nominee for Nevada Secretary of State, speaks to the Las Vegas Sun editorial board Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022.
Sunday, Oct. 9, 2022 | 2 a.m.
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Democratic secretary of state candidate Cisco Aguilar is troubled by thinking about how Nevada’s elections will look and feel if he’s defeated in next month’s midterm election.
Aguilar is running against Jim Marchant, a former Nevada Assemblyman who — despite multiple judges dismissing court cases claiming election fraud — still clings to the claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from former President Donald Trump.
Aguilar and Marchant are vying to replace Barbara Cegavske, a termed-out Republican who received much criticism from her own party in early 2021 for not going along with fraudulent election theories.
“After the November 2020 election, I thought, I can’t accept this,” Aguilar told the Sun’s editorial board last week.
Aguilar, a Las Vegas attorney and former staffer for U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, was the founding chairman of Cristo Rey St. Viator, a Catholic high school in North Las Vegas serving children from Southern Nevada’s most vulnerable communities.
He helped raise $47 million for the school’s campus, which debuted in 2019, and is passionate about giving the school’s children a voice. That, he stresses, starts with voting.
“Somebody’s going to try to keep my kids and their parents from exercising their fundamental right to vote,” he said. “And every freedom and everything we live our lives by run through the ballot box. And public education is one of those. If I’m going to be an advocate, I need to stand up now.”
Here are highlights of our conversation with Aguilar, which have been edited for clarity and brevity. We would gladly present an interview with Marchant, but he hasn’t accepted an invitation to visit with our editorial board.
Describe the roles and responsibilities of the Secretary of State’s Office and why you believe you’re qualified for this office.
The first is that the secretary of state is responsible for all corporate-sector security filings. The SilverFlume system (the system for businesses to process their filings) is not efficient and has not been well maintained.
As somebody who recently started a sports technology company and worked to establish Cristo Rey St. Viator, I’ve had to work with the SilverFlume system regularly. The school filing is due every February, and two years ago, the system was down the entire month of February. I said, “Holy cow, imagine all those small businesses out there that have a filing due in February, and it’s down.” They’re panicking because they think they’re going to get fined. The banks are requesting these documents for them to apply for loans to build capital. And I just thought that we’re not doing a good job.
Politicians are constantly talking about education as a priority. Yet we are performing poorly, we’re not delivering ... to parents and students. I just thought, we’re never going to change our educational outcomes or perspective, our investment in public education, unless we get parents out to vote.
My opponent talks regularly about eliminating early voting. You cannot do that in Nevada. Nevada is a 24/7 economy. We have parents working from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., working multiple jobs to put food on the table. And if you talk about making voting a single-day event on the first Tuesday of November, a lot of these parents aren’t going to be able to participate.
My parents weren’t educated. My dad worked three jobs to support our family. I wouldn’t have the opportunities I have if I didn’t have access to education. My parents believed in education, even though they weren’t educated, they knew the impact education could have, and changing the trajectory of somebody’s life. And I owe that responsibility back to my community.
What do you see as some of the biggest challenges facing your office, should you be elected?
Staffing for elections. I think given the circumstances and the environment of election workers, it’s hard. People don’t want to work in an office where they feel intimidated or harassed, or walk to their car feeling unsafe. That’s why I announced that if I am elected, the first bill draft request we would release is making it a felony to harass and intimidate election workers.
What do you think are the stakes of this election? What happens if you don’t win?
Nevada is a battleground state. And it’s going to determine who the next president is. If we have an individual who’s in this race to benefit himself and a small group of his friends, we’re going to see an outcome that none of us wanted or even imagined could happen. He’s in this to impact and influence the outcome of the election. He says it regularly, loud and clear. He doesn’t believe our president now is duly elected. And that is a scary proposition, because democracy sits on the shoulders of the next secretary of state. And I know I’m being dramatic about it, but it’s a serious issue.
The authority for early voting is legislative. Can the secretary of state unilaterally limit the timeframe to vote?
The secretary of state is responsible for enforcing voting laws. So if counties like Nye decide not to allow early voting, and he is the secretary of state, who will enforce the law or hold them accountable?
How much can a secretary of state affect the behaviors of county clerks?
Well, given that Clark has 80% of the population across the state, the secretary of state and the Clark County clerk have to be in sync on election processes. Whatever system or process they implement, we have to truly understand it and be on the same wavelength. There’s a way to grab all the clerks across the state to figure out the best processes for everybody and work collaboratively to create processes that benefit all. It’s a very collaborative position. This is not a position where you can sit in your office and just wait for people to come to you. You have to be out there figuring this out.
What happens if there’s a conflict between the secretary of state and one of the counties?
That’s where the court’s come in. So I think if my opponent wins, there is going to be a long period with a large stimulus package for attorneys.
Do you think universal mail-in voting is here to stay, or was it an artifact of the pandemic?
I think it’s going to stay here. It’s working, it’s doing the job we needed to do. It’s giving our marginalized communities an opportunity to exercise a voice. When an individual has to drive an hour and a half or two hours to a polling site, that’s not acceptable. Oregon has done universal mail-in voting for 30 years. What we need to do is get more efficient at the tabulating of mail ballots. Last cycle was the first time we used it on such a large scale. And we had that period of time that it took us to actually count the votes. But we will get better, which will then make it easier for people to understand and to stomach. When you throw something new at somebody and it doesn’t go as smoothly as we intended it to go, people are going to question it. And that’s where the discussion of fraud came about.
Have you seen any evidence of fraud in mail-in voting?
Only by one individual who screamed the loudest about fraud. It ended up with him doing it and he was prosecuted for it. I’ve been in constant communication with our current secretary about these issues. She has not found any evidence of fraud other than that one case. And she asks all the time for people to bring her facts. And they can’t. Even the courts have determined six times that there’s been no fraud in our election process.
With that said, though, there’s clearly a perception among a significant percentage of the population that there is a problem with election integrity. How do we address that perception?
We’ve got to have open communication and try to understand the basis of those concerns. That requires me going down to Pahrump, it requires me going to Elko, it requires me going to Winnemucca to have these conversations to listen and for opportunities to provide additional information. I know it’s not easy. I’m not being naive about this. But it’s my obligation as an elected official to understand why people have these feelings.
What would you do as secretary of state to increase the number of polling places in Native American communities?
We’ve got to reverse the process as it is now. Right now the tribes have to come to the county and request a ballot location. The Secretary of State’s Office needs to be in that conversation earlier to say, “Hello Native communities, how can we better serve you from a voting perspective?” And one thing I would do is immediately implement a tribal ambassador that reports directly to the Secretary of State. It would be the first in the country, maybe, but it needs to be done.
There’s been a fascinating phenomenon that came with extended voting periods where people will get together, have coffee and lunch, and they will work on their ballots together. Does the Secretary of State have opportunities to increase the cultural heft of voting and increase civic engagement?
I think so. People are tired of being angry, and they’re looking for optimism and a vision forward, where people can begin to have conversation and disagree but still maintain decorum and have community. People want to be able to go back to a day when they talked to their neighbors. I have the opportunity to work with the San Manuel tribe. And every time they make a major decision that impacts the tribe, they always ask the question of how does this affect seven generations from now? And that creates a discussion, right? Because it brings everybody together to say, “What is our intended goal? How are we going to get there? And how are we going to make sure that the decision we’re making now is a good decision for our children’s children?” If we can get a shared vision, we can bring people to the table together and set priorities for what we want to accomplish.
What happens if the secretary of state refuses to certify the election?
Well, the secretary of state doesn’t actually certify the election. It’s submitted to the Nevada Supreme Court for certification. If they refuse to submit it, then civil rights lawyers and the courts will get involved. In New Mexico, the courts had to step in to force a county commission to certify the results. Fortunately, they did it before it actually went into drawn-out litigation.
A secretary of state who refuses to submit the result, though, would be basically saying that they have run a corrupt system, right?
Based on what my opponent has said, that’s his intent. He’s saying it now before he’s even elected — it’s not a guessing game. The secretary of state is a regulator. It’s like me on the Athletic Commission: We set the rules, we set the standard, we set the process, but the outcome of that fight is determined in the ring or in the octagon. And once that determination is made, then we have to follow it. And we have to make sure both participants are within the rules. That’s our job. And when somebody falls outside those rules, we have to hold them accountable.
How can we better engage with Latino voters, particularly in Southern Nevada, where the community is not a single diaspora but rather much more of the American melting pot?
It’s about being authentic and meeting them where they are. It’s also about engaging outside of an election year and understanding the issues before an election year comes. Look, we’ve hit the Latino community hard in this state. Like many families, my father’s pride was being able to put food on our table on a daily basis. That was what he was doing for our family. In 2008, when the economic crash happened, the construction industry got hit the hardest. Who are the major members of that construction industry? It’s Latino families. Then comes the pandemic. We close the Strip; who’s the hardest hit? At the end of the day, your kids and your family need food to eat. And we’ve hit Latinos twice, hard. Now they’re asking what’s next? When is it coming? And can I trust the elected leaders to do what’s in my best interest?
If your opponent is elected, will Latinos in Nevada lose their voice?
Yes, absolutely. But it’s not enough to just say democracy is on the line; you have to connect democracy to the issues they care about. We’ve got to talk in a language that they understand. When you’re worrying about keeping your job or keeping your small business or putting food on the table, having a voice in Carson City is secondary. You’ve got to connect the dots to say, this is why it matters.
