Aguilar announced his candidacy to become
secretary of state of Nevada for the
2022 election; his predecessor, , a Republican, was ineligible to run again due to strict absolute lifetime
term limit laws. Marchant is also an
election denier who believed the
2020 election was stolen from President
Donald Trump. His victory made him the first
Latino Nevada secretary of state. Aguilar supported a bipartisan bill signed by Republican
Governor Joe Lombardo enacted by the Democratic-majority state legislature which makes harassing election workers a felony in Nevada. In the highly contentious
2020 and
2024 presidential elections, both with narrow margins of victory, has put Nevada's election system in the national spotlight. Aguilar has spent much of his time as secretary of state educating national and local press about Nevada law, which is largely the reason for the delays after election day. Nevada's ballot counting speed has, at least since 2020, become the subject of memes and broader
internet culture. Nevada law requires that all registered voters receive a mail in ballot which they may use in lieu of in person voting. However, mail and ballot signatures must match the signature on file at the
Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles. If the signature does not match, voters are given time to complete a process to verify their signature and have their vote counted. Letters are also given a period of time to correct their signature, which must be verified by election workers. In the 2024 election, approximately 14,000 ballots had errors that needed to be corrected with November 12 being the latest deadline. == Electoral history ==