VICTOR JOECKS: Democrat SOS’s error shows need for greater election security

A Freudian slip is when someone unintentionally says something that reveals what he’s really thinking. An Aguilarian error is when a Democrat unintentionally does something that reveals how his rhetorical claims don’t line up with reality.

On Monday, Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar’s office released personal information about Adriana Guzmán Fralick, a Republican running for attorney general. Aguilar’s office posted a copy of her driver’s license and home address. Candidates have to submit personal information to the secretary of state, but it isn’t supposed to be released publicly.

The data breach came after Guzmán Fralick offered a pointed and effective criticism of Aguilar. Last month, Aguilar attended a U.S. Supreme Court argument on whether states could accept ballots received after Election Day. Nevada law allows this. This practice has contributed to several Republicans leading their races on Election Day but eventually losing after all the ballots are tallied days later. It appears the Supreme Court will prohibit states from counting mail ballots received after Election Day.

“To change the rules of the game in the middle of the competition does not do anyone any good,” Aguilar said.

“I guess he must have forgotten about Democrats using COVID to change the rules in the middle of the election,” Guzmán Fralick wrote on X. “Give me a break.”

Point for Guzmán Fralick. During a 2020 special session, Nevada Democrats passed universal mail ballots — fewer than 100 days before the November election. Democrats didn’t whine about that rule change.

“Aguilar wants Nevadans to believe our elections are secure and fair, but he can’t even secure my personal information,” Guzmán Fralick said in a statement.

For his part, Aguilar admitted that his office “errantly included information that should have been redacted from a candidate’s e-filing packet on our public website.” His office removed the information, and he called her to apologize. It “was a result of human error and not indicative of a systemic problem,” he said.

That seems like the logical explanation. Well-intentioned people make mistakes. That’s why you need mechanisms to both prevent and catch errors. Now think about this in another context.

In the internal system Aguilar runs, only a few people handle candidate information. It’s extremely unlikely that an employee extracting the public records sheet had a strong incentive to dox one of Aguilar’s political opponents. Yet it happened. Aguilar didn’t realize something had gone wrong until someone pointed it out.

In the external system Aguilar runs — Nevada’s elections — lots of people handle ballots, especially mail ballots. There are massive incentives to cheat. Winning elections brings a politician power. Successful campaign consultants earn more money. Noncitizens may want supporters of amnesty elected.

Nevada’s election system has gaping security flaws. Citizenship “verification” is a checkbox. Signature verification is a joke. Photo ID isn’t required to vote.

Yet instead of aggressively looking for voter fraud and trying to secure the system, Aguilar actively dismisses the possibility of things going wrong.

As Guzmán Fralick learned firsthand, ignorance doesn’t mean problems don’t exist.