The Justice Department issued seven subpoenas to Nevada’s Secretary of State for voter information over the last three months, marking another escalation in the Trump administration’s push to scrutinize state election data ahead of the midterms. Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar disclosed the subpoenas on Friday, saying his office received the voter-related demands from the FBI without specification of what information was being sought.
Aguilar, a Democrat, criticized the move in a statement, saying the federal administration is “inundating election offices with investigations and questions ahead of the election, and making sweeping claims of election fraud to the public before any investigation is done.”
The Nevada subpoenas follow a broader pattern of federal pressure. In August, a federal judge in Nevada dismissed a DOJ lawsuit seeking the state’s unredacted voter registration list, delivering another legal setback to the administration’s voter data collection efforts. According to Aguilar’s office, Nevada is now the 22nd consecutive state or jurisdiction to prevail in federal district court against the Trump administration’s attempt to force states to turn over unredacted voter rolls.
The Trump administration has sued approximately 30 states and Washington, D.C., for access to voter data since December 2025, but federal courts have rejected the vast majority of these cases. As of August, 22 courts had dismissed DOJ lawsuits seeking to obtain sensitive voter information, citing privacy concerns and legal authority questions.
The administration’s voter data campaign is tied to unsubstantiated claims about noncitizens on voter rolls. In July, the Department of Homeland Security announced that an audit had identified more than 250,000 registered noncitizens across four states, including 15,903 in Nevada. However, when DHS met privately with Aguilar’s office last month, federal officials acknowledged they had “confirmed” only 185 of the Nevada names through manual review, according to internal records reviewed by CNN. Another 6,200 were labeled “higher confidence matches” but still required further vetting.
This week, the Department of Homeland Security launched a surge in voter fraud investigations across nine states, including Nevada, deploying hundreds of agents to probe alleged noncitizen voting. The investigation comes as the midterms approach in less than two months. DHS has also pressured states to share voter rolls for audits and threatened to withhold election security grants from those refusing to adopt a broad set of election reforms.
Election experts and state officials have disputed the Trump administration’s fraud claims. When Democrats demanded election security funding from DHS ahead of the midterms, they highlighted the lack of evidence for widespread voter fraud. Similarly, Arizona election officials have vowed to protect the midterms from Trump interference, and Homeland Security’s noncitizen voter fraud probe in 9 states has drawn criticism for targeting a phenomenon election experts say is rare.
Sources
- CNN — Justice Department issued subpoenas to Nevada’s secretary of state for voter information; DHS’s inflated noncitizen voter claims and confirmed numbers
- Las Vegas Review-Journal — Nevada elections office received seven FBI subpoenas; federal judge dismissed DOJ lawsuit; DHS findings on noncitizens
- New York Times — Trump administration escalated efforts to obtain voter data; DOJ sued 30 states starting in December 2025
- Democracy Docket — 22 federal courts rejected DOJ’s voter roll demands as of August 2026
- Brennan Center for Justice — Analysis of federal court rejections of DOJ voter data requests
