When the fervor of the "stop the steal" election deniers reached its most fevered mania in 2020, Nevada's Republican Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske set an example for the propaganda-battered nation by rejecting a fusillade of false voter fraud claims from her own party in an impressive display of courage under fire.

For holding her ground, she was vilified by Donald Trump's MAGA water-bearers in the state GOP and was eventually censured. The threats and low blows only burnished her reputation as an ethical public servant. She set an example for others to follow.

I realize it's now 2026 and far from the first time you've seen me extol the conservative Cegavske's virtues when it comes to a Republican defending the state's election process. The fact is, I've struggled to find a second example.

My email is open. If another Republican constitutional officeholder from Nevada has been waiting for the right time to vocally reject Trump's hair-on-fire voter fraud claims and the related mail-in balloting sham, I can't wait to hear about it.

Flagging in the approval polls and mired in an unwanted war and a sagging economy, Trump is doing everything he can to distort and derail Nevada's fair and accurate state-run election. And he has no shortage of toadies to assist him.

An example of where we're at was reported this week in The Indy. Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar's (D) office earlier this year received seven Department of Justice subpoenas in a voter-related FBI criminal probe. This comes in the wake of the state's decision not to submit to the Trump administration's demand through the U.S. Department of Justice for personally identifiable information — including driver's license and partial Social Security numbers —  for all of Nevada's registered voters.

Claiming hundreds of thousands of potential noncitizens were registered to vote in four states, including Nevada, in July Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin threatened criminal investigation if they continued to reject federal efforts to scour voter rolls out of a stated concern of preventing noncitizen registration. He also promised to withhold federal election aid to states that failed to fall in line.

Like his predecessor, and to his credit, Aguilar is standing firm against mounting pressure and partisan criticism. Not surprisingly, one critic is his Republican challenger for secretary of state, Jim Marchant, who offered a head-scratching response to Aguilar's rejection of federal interference with Nevada's constitutionally protected role to manage its own elections.

A devout MAGA election denier who trafficks in dizzying voter fraud conspiracies, Marchant mocked the secretary of state's criticism with a claim that Aguilar's first reaction to a federal threat was to hit back at the "investigation."

"The federal government opened a probe in Nevada, and the man running our elections called it a distraction," Marchant said. "Aguilar's office said that 'the investigation is an attempt to cause doubt' but his response doesn't give me any confidence in how he's running our elections."

But speaking of things that don't encourage confidence, in a 2022 primary debate during his first run for secretary of state, Marchant announced with great confidence and zero facts, "Your vote hasn't counted for decades," due to fraudulent elections. "You haven't elected anybody. The people that are in office have been selected. You haven't had a choice."

The people had a choice that year and rejected Marchant by a small margin in favor of Aguilar. Two years earlier, after a loss to Steve Horsford in the Congressional District 4 race, Marchant insisted that — like his endorser Trump — he also was victimized by voter fraud.

In Marchant's mind, the state's reliable voting machines were essentially demon-possessed and out to get him. A few years later during a voter voodoo dog-and-pony show in front of the Nye County Commission, Marchant and others encouraged elected officials to throw out their voting machines. At one point, paper ballots were counted by hand.

An Associated Press investigation of six key battleground states, including Nevada, showed that fewer than 475 votes were cast illegally. President Joe Biden, it should be remembered, won Nevada in 2020 by more than 33,000 votes.

Fast-forward to 2026, and President Don Quixote's windmill is the threat of noncitizen voters participating in midterm elections. The numbers floated were impressive, but it's turning out that the actual number of noncitizens who registered to vote in Nevada wasn't 15,903, but potentially just 185.

Not that they voted, mind you, but they might have. And that, the Trump administration wants Nevadans to believe, is enough to let the folks who have been lying about voter fraud for years decide who is qualified to cast a ballot.

"You do not rebuild trust by telling people not to look," Marchant tells us.

Nor do you fortify election security by peddling conspiracy theories, or shoveling bullshit into the public square and calling it proof of fraud.

Labor Day marks the start of the final push to Election Day. Although there are many competitive races, the greatest battle is to maintain our free and fair elections.

John L. Smith is an author and longtime columnist. He was born in Henderson and his family's Nevada roots go back to 1881. His stories have appeared in New Lines, Time, Reader's Digest, Rolling Stone, The Daily Beast, Reuters and Desert Companion, among others.