Nevada's Election Chief Takes On Trump's DOJ

Four weeks from Election Day, Jill Wine-Banks sits down with Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar, chair of the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State, to ask the question keeping so many of us up at night: can the Trump administration interfere with our elections?

Aguilar's answer: elections belong to the states, and secretaries of state have been preparing since the last cycle. He explains how a group of Republican secretaries of state helped convince the Supreme Court to block the Postal Service's mail-ballot rule, and why Nevada won't run its voter rolls through the federal SAVE database despite pressure from the state's Republican governor.

Then the story of how Nevada called the administration's bluff. The president claimed 16,000 noncitizens were on Nevada's rolls, and DHS threatened prison if the state didn't comply. "Here I am, come get me," Aguilar said. When DHS finally sent its data, it had done work on just 185 names, and Nevada's own review found no reason to believe any of them were noncitizens. Aguilar also reveals seven grand jury subpoenas and a DOJ investigation targeting him, and describes the administration's intimidation as "like lasagna": thin layers that add up to something substantial. Jill shares that she may be under investigation herself, for her work as a Watergate prosecutor 52 years ago.

Plus: why secretary of state races are the best insurance policy for 2028, and how you can help right now by voting, becoming a poll worker, or volunteering as an ACLU poll observer.

LINKS FROM THIS EPISODE

Cisco Aguilar for Secretary of State:

https://voteforcisco.com

Democratic Association of Secretaries of State:

https://demsofstate.org

The Nevada Independent: 185 voters flagged by the Trump administration are likely citizens, state says

https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/185-noncitizen-voters-flagged-by-trump-admin-in-nevada-are-likely-citizens-state-says

Las Vegas Review-Journal: DOJ tells Nevada election chief he is under investigation

https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/nevada/doj-tells-nevada-election-chief-he-is-under-investigation-3884314/

SCOTUSblog: Supreme Court denies the administration's request to implement parts of the USPS mail-in voting rule

https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/09/supreme-court-denies-trump-administrations-request-to-implement-parts-of-usps-rule-on-mail-in-vo/

Defending Our Vote: the ACLU's poll monitor and election protection program:

https://www.aclu.org/campaigns-initiatives/election-safeguarding

Jill Wine-Banks:

https://www.jillwinebanks.com

CHAPTERS

0:00 Meet Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar

2:45 "They're not going to take control of our elections"

3:53 Working with Republican secretaries of state

4:46 The Supreme Court, the Postal Service and mail ballots

6:47 Why Nevada won't use the federal SAVE database

8:30 16,000 "noncitizen voters" … down to zero

11:20 Seven grand jury subpoenas and a DOJ investigation

12:11 Jill: Are the Watergate prosecutors next?

13:06 Should secretaries of state be partisan?

14:32 The 2026 races and the insurance policy for 2028

16:35 500 bills to restrict voting: how you can help

17:52 Become a poll worker or poll observer

18:48 Federal monitors at the polls?

20:41 Thank you, Secretary Aguilar