(The Center Square) - Fears around access to elections and election fraud have reached a fever pitch this midterm.

Across the country, states such as Nevada are met with claims of voter fraud. The Secretary of State's Office has been tasked with securing the Nov. 3 general election while seeking to keep voting access high.

“Nevada runs some of the safest, most secure and accessible elections in the country,” Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar told The Center Square. “The fact that MIT ranked our election second in the country for the work that we've done is pretty incredible – and we're going to continue to work to improve them for all Nevadans.”

Nevada was ranked second-highest in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Election Performance Index for the 2024 election. The ranking is based on 20 indicators, including voter turnout and the requirement of post-election audits.

“We replaced the entire infrastructure of our system,” said Aguilar, a Democrat. “We’ve replaced our voting machines with ballot marking devices. The machines are no longer the machines they were in [20]24, 22, and 20. They're basically glorified iPads now that produce a paper ballot for every voter to review and hold and touch. The voter puts their ballot in the tabulator themselves.”

Despite the changes, the state has regularly come under scrutiny for its elections in recent years. After 2020, claims of fraud were widespread following a presidential election that saw Nevadans narrowly pick Joe Biden over Donald Trump in the presidential race by a margin of just over 30,000 in the state.

The FBI closed an investigation into alleged fraud from the 2020 election just this year due to a lack of evidence, according to a report from the Washington Post. The investigation had been brought by the Trump-appointed assistant U.S. attorney in Nevada, Sigal Chattah. After a series of temporary positions, Chattah has since been disqualified from her position.

More recently, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and President Donald Trump alleged nearly 16,000 noncitizens were on Nevada’s voters list in an August investigation.

The Nevada figure was part of a larger group of noncitizen voters across four U.S. states, according to the DHS. Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin told The Center Square at the time, “We’ve put these governors on notice. States must work with us to ensure free, fair and honest elections."

The DHS later reduced its list of nearly 16,000 noncitizen voters in Nevada to just 185 individuals, but the Nevada Secretary of State's Office has said those 185 people are U.S. citizens with the right to vote.

The allegations of election fraud come as the state prepares for a 2026 election that sees the governor and all four U.S. House members up for a vote.

According to a June 2026 poll by The Terrance Group of 600 likely-to-vote Nevadans, 76% were somewhat or very confident their 2026 election would be counted accurately, while 23% said they were not confident.

In Nevada, where 45% of voters cast mail-in ballots, 39% said they were not confident in the security of mail voting.

The debate over election security is surfacing as voters in the general election get ready to vote on the ballot's Question 7 - the Require Voter Identification Initiative, which asks Nevadans whether to require voter ID.

Despite its prevalence across 36 states, voter ID is controversial in Nevada. Some advocates for increased voting access said it would increase barriers for groups of legal voters.

Nevada’s voter ID proposal would require voters to present a form of valid photo ID at their polling station, or upload the last four digits of their driver’s license or Social Security number for mail ballots. The ballot measure, a constitutional amendment, is being brought before its second and final vote after Nevadan’s widely approved it 73% to 27% in 2024.

“We're looking at something that is likely to impact very heavily, historically marginalized populations," Barbara Wells, president of the League of Women Voters of Nevada, previously told The Center Square.

She added that minority groups are least likely to carry ID and that married women and transgender people are most likely to change their name and potentially face issues with inaccurate IDs.

"This will include, for instance, racial and ethnic minorities, low-income individuals, those with disabilities, the unhoused, and even younger adults and transgender people,” said Wells.

In 2024, nearly 73% of Nevada’s more than 2 million registered voters voted, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. The U.S. average for the same year was 64%, according to Pew Research.

The Secretary of State’s Office said it was unable to comment on the voter ID proposal, and did not give an estimated cost for the implementation of the voter ID requirement.

The Nevada Republican Party did not respond to a request for comment by The Center Square. The state Democratic Party was not available to comment before publication time.