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Secretary of State seeks staff and IT funding for elections, business services and cybersecurity
Summary
Secretary Cisco Aguilar told a joint legislative committee the Office of the Secretary of State needs new staff and ongoing IT funding to support a top‑down voter registration/election management rollout, Project Orion (business services replacement), cybersecurity and customer service in Southern Nevada.
Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar and his deputies presented the office's 2026–27 biennium budget request to the joint Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means committees, asking for new staff across elections, commercial recordings, notary and information technology, plus one‑time funding to finish two major IT modernization projects.
"We have made great improvements to business licensing and to the security and transparency of our elections," Aguilar said, describing completed work and remaining priorities. The office reported collecting $254,100,000 in fiscal year 2024, of which $253,300,000 was deposited to the General Fund; the commercial recordings division accounted for roughly 84% of that total.
Major items presented: Project Orion, a multi‑phase replacement of the SilverFlume business portal and related systems; a centralized voter registration and election management system (VRAM/VRAMs) rollout; and new cybersecurity and IT staff to sustain both projects. Chief Deputy Gabriel De Cara and commercial recordings deputy Deanna Reynolds described Orion as underway with UCC replacement slated for Q4 2025 and business licensing, notaries and trademarks planned for Q3 2027. De Cara said the office fixed more than 600 bugs in the legacy SilverFlume platform to stabilize data for migration.
On the voter system, the office described a phased rollout. Gabriel De Cara said the Clark County merge with the statewide system was moved into phase 2 and is scheduled for completion "by early September 2025." Deputy Mark Wlaschin said remaining phase‑3 items, including a voter web portal and other voter‑facing tools, are targeted for early‑to‑mid 2026 to be ready for the 2026 election cycle.
The office requested multiple staff additions: customer engagement and service center agents for Southern Nevada (E321/E322), IT technicians and a cloud security specialist (E304, E309, E316), enforcement personnel and a forensic accountant for the securities division (E327/E328), additional compliance and notary staff (E325), and business process analysis positions tied to sustaining the new applications (E312). De Cara said many of those requests are revenue‑generating or efficiency positions and argued they should produce a return on investment.
Lawmakers asked about timeline changes for VRAM, who currently runs and will maintain security, and how many investigation cases the securities and compliance teams manage. Deputy De Cara and Deputy Aaron Houston (Securities) said Nevada's securities caseload and the number of registered sales representatives have grown substantially; the office currently has one enforcement attorney and argued an additional attorney and a forensic accountant would accelerate enforcement and recovery work.
Deputy Josh Gruver and Deanna Reynolds described Orion and security needs: UCC first because of lien/search liabilities, OCR and AI for form ingestion, and a dedicated information security unit to work with counties connected to the statewide election system. De Cara and others emphasized that cybersecurity is a top priority and that the office has engaged external cybersecurity firm Mandiant for testing.
Committee members sought clarification about temporary contractors used during implementation and whether positions proposed would replace contractors when the projects move into sustainment. Office leaders said the plan is to hire permanent staff to replace long‑term contractor roles. Aguilar and deputies also highlighted outreach efforts, training for county clerks, and an "elections lab" to support standardization across 17 county clerks and their staff.
The hearing closed after extended questioning. Committee members requested updated timelines and cost breakdowns for the major projects, and fiscal staff asked for any revised timelines in writing.
