EDITORIAL: Aguilar shows the vulnerabilities of mail ballots

You may not be able to trust a politician’s words, but you can learn a lot from his actions.

On Wednesday, Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar sent letters to the Nevada Congressional delegation. He asked them to send observers to various Nevada postal facilities “to gather information about federal elections.” In the 2024 general election, almost 700,000 Nevadans voted using mail ballots. It is likely that hundreds of thousands of Nevadans will do so in the upcoming election. After changes passed in 2020, Nevada now mails unsolicited ballots to nearly every voter.

“Congressional participation through timely observation can further support voter confidence and respectful handling of every ballot,” Mr. Aguilar said in his letter.

This request comes after Mr. Aguilar and Democrats around the country objected to a plan by President Donald Trump aimed at stopping noncitizen voters. In a March executive order, Mr. Trump directed the Post Office to not transmit mail-in or absentee ballots of non-citizens. One might assume that removing non-citizens from the voter rolls would be a bipartisan priority. Mr. Aguilar and other Democratic election officials have shown little interest in pursuing it and have consistently fought with the administration on this issue.

Whatever your thoughts on the merits, Mr. Trump’s Post Office plan was a clever work around. But the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against it earlier this month — at least for the upcoming election.

Mr. Aguilar’s letter showed he’s worried that the Post Office may still try to interfere with mail ballots. He wants federal observers because the postal workers who handle hundreds of thousands of ballots don’t work for him or any other election Nevada official.

Perhaps, if Mr. Aguilar reflects on this he’ll put two and two together. Republicans have long objected to universal mail ballots. One major concern is security. Sending mail ballots to all voters gives outsiders access to those ballots. That makes the system less secure, especially when officials send ballots to voters who didn’t request them. The absentee ballot system at least required voters to ask to vote through the mail. Those voters were looking for their ballots, and there were fewer ballots going through the postal system.

Mr. Aguilar and other Democrats have long acted as if mail ballot concerns were simply conspiracy theories, not obvious security risks.

But now that Mr. Trump is in the White House, Mr. Aguilar — sans evidence — wants observers to make sure no one interferes with Nevadans’ ballots.

Mr. Aguilar has inadvertently demonstrated that Republicans are right to be concerned universal mail ballots undermining election integrity.