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 the 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
Jill Wine-Banks