Election records in Nye County seized

Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2002 | 9:52 a.m.

The FBI has seized election records and nearly 1,300 Nye County absentee ballots from the Sept. 3 primary election in response to allegations that voters used mail-forwarding businesses as residential addresses, the county clerk said.

Nye County Clerk Sam Merlino said that FBI agents arrived at her office Monday morning and took the election materials.

"They had a subpoena and they just told me they were investigating voter fraud," Merlino said.

Pahrump residents have challenged the election results, saying that the voters in question illegally listed mail-drop services as their addresses.

"Due to Department of Justice guidelines we're prohibited from providing details on this investigation," Special Agent Daron Borst, a spokesman for the Las Vegas office of the FBI, said.

Last week a Pahrump judge disqualified 859 voters after ruling that they were listing a mail-forwarding company as their home address or were dead.

State law prohibits the practice of listing companies that forward mail as a residential address. There are a total of 18,667 registered voters, making the confiscated ballots about 7 percent of the vote for the county.

Anyone who lies on registration forms could face perjury charges and fines of up to $20,000, election officials with the attorney general's office said.

The office of the Nye County District Attorney is continuing its investigation into the allegations.