Nevada: State proposes new system to potentially speed up voter verification during elections | Jannelle Calderon/Nevada Independent

The secretary of state’s office wants to transition from a county-led to a state-led top-down voter registration system that could speed up the time-consuming process of verifying that people who take advantage of a new same-day voter registration law haven’t already voted in the same election. The elections division has requested from the Legislature $1.5 million to start the process, although officials say the new system likely won’t be up and running for a few years – possibly even after the 2024 election. The agency’s push for a new top-down approach began about a year before the 2020 election, but it became evident after the November election just how inefficient the current bottom-up system can be. Nevada was the subject of jokes nationally because it took several days to count and clear tens of thousands of provisional ballots (those set aside to allow for verification of a voters’ eligibility), making it difficult to quickly project the winner of the presidential race. Currently, each of the state’s 17 counties control and maintain their own voter registration databases, while the secretary of state’s office maintains yet another voter registration database consisting of all records compiled from each of the counties and updated daily. Details of the budget request were publicly discussed during a joint budget hearing last month. A top-down voter registration system would provide a centralized statewide database and election management system with real-time voter information. Election officials say it would make fixing errors, checking for duplicate registrations and verifying voter eligibility faster and “seamless.”

Full Article: State proposes new system to potentially speed up voter verification during elections

Nevada lawmaker wants to make universal mail-in voting permanent | John Sadler/Las Vegas Sun

Expanded mail-in voting implemented in Nevada last year — which Democrats and voting rights activists praised and Republicans criticized — could become permanent. Assembly Speaker Jason Frierson, D-Las Vegas, is expected to introduce a bill similar to a one-time measure passed last year amid the pandemic to send mail-in ballots to all active registered voters. The major difference is the bill would apply to all future elections. “It wouldn’t be consistent with Nevada’s independent spirit to take that option away from voters,” Frierson said. The legislation may address the speed at which votes are counted and reported, but specifics are still being ironed out, Frierson said. Educating the public about the safety of mail-in ballots is a priority, he said. “I think that we absolutely have to take into account that there are some people who are, I believe, misled with false information about fraudulent activity,” Frierson said. Mail-in ballots were at the heart of a partisan fight during last year’s presidential election, with Democrats arguing they expanded voting opportunities and kept voters safe during the pandemic and Republicans making unsupported claims they contribute to voter fraud.

Full Article: Lawmaker wants to make universal mail-in voting permanent in Nevada – Las Vegas Sun Newspaper

Nevada Democrats introduce bill to switch from caucus to primary in 2024 | Daniel Uria/UPI

Nevada Democrats on Monday introduced legislation to ditch the state’s caucus system and make it the first state to hold a presidential primary for the 2024 election. The bill introduced by Democratic state lawmakers Jason Frierson, Teresa Benitez-Thompson and Brittney Miller would set the state’s presidential primary for the Tuesday “immediately preceding the last Tuesday in January,” placing it ahead of New Hampshire on the primary schedule. Additionally, the legislation would require early voting for the primary election beginning 10 calendar days before the election and extending through the Friday before. Nevada is currently one of just four states to hold a caucus along with Iowa, Wyoming and North Dakota, while the U.S. territories of American Samoa, Guam and the Virgin Islands also participate in the practice.

Full Article: Nevada Democrats introduce bill to switch from caucus to primary in 2024 – UPI.com

Nevada: Automatic voter registration system adds thousands of new voters, despite security concerns from critics | Sean Golonka/Nevada Independent

More than 140,000 people registered as new voters through Nevada’s automatic voter registration (AVR) system since it took effect in January last year, according to a new report. After a majority of Nevada voters approved the system in 2018, AVR took effect in 2020, allowing individuals who complete certain DMV transactions such as driver’s license renewals to register to vote or have registration information updated unless they manually opt out. The report, which was submitted to the Legislature’s Interim Finance Committee by the secretary of state’s office, combined with data from the secretary of state’s office showed that AVR created 142,484 new Nevada voters last year. Those new registrations, along with updates to approximately 300,000 existing voter registrations, came by way of more than 580,000 DMV transactions that offered a voter registration opportunity.

Full Article: Automatic voter registration system adds thousands of new voters, despite security concerns from critics

Nevada Secretary of State: No evidence of ‘wide-spread fraud’ in 2020 election | Riley Snyder/Nevada Independent

Nevada Secretary of State ’s office announced Friday evening that it has “yet to see any evidence of wide-spread fraud” in the state’s 2020 election, an indirect rebuke of unsupported claims of mass voter fraud made by President Donald Trump and Nevada Republicans. In a “Facts vs. Myths” document posted to the secretary of state’s website late Friday, Cegavske’s office wrote that it is pursuing several “isolated” cases of voter fraud, but has not seen evidence of any large-scale fraud that would meaningfully affect Trump’s 33,596-vote loss in the state. Electors cast Nevada’s six electoral votes for President-elect Joe Biden on Monday. Publication of the document comes two days after President Trump tweeted that “Nevada must be flipped” based on testimony presented by a Trump campaign attorney, Jesse Binnall, during a U.S. Senate hearing on election security on Wednesday. A Binnall-led lawsuit by the Trump campaign to grant the president the six electors tied to Biden, or withdraw Nevada entirely from Electoral College proceedings, failed in early December. The purported evidence presented about the alleged fraud in Nevada’s 2020 election has been roundly rejected by courts in the state, including by a District Court judge as offering “little to no value” and failing to establish that any illegal votes were cast in the election. Judge James Russell’s order called into question data analyses provided by the Trump campaign, saying their methodology was questionable or that witnesses were unable to verify data or identify its origins.

Full Article: Secretary of State: No evidence of ‘wide-spread fraud’ in Nevada’s 2020 election

Nevada: Why Trump’s lawsuit seeking to overturn state’s presidential race sputtered in court | Riley Snyder/Nevada Independent

Ten days after major media outlets called Nevada for Joe Biden, attorneys and allies of President Donald Trump’s campaign stood outside state party headquarters in Las Vegas to make a stunning announcement — the campaign had identified enough irregularities to call election results in the state into question and planned to file a lawsuit challenging them in court. “Donald Trump won the state of Nevada, after you account for the fraud and irregularities that occurred in the election,” campaign attorney Jesse Binnall said on Nov. 17, adding that the Trump campaign was “quite confident in the fact that when the law and the facts are clearly adjudicated in this matter, that it will be very clear that once all the voting happened, once everything occurred, the results were unreliable because of the irregularities and the fraud.” But the Trump campaign’s eyebrow-raising accounts of voter fraud — tens of thousands of mail ballots sent from out-of-state, vote totals mysteriously changing overnight, and testimony that volunteers in a Biden van were caught filling out blank mail ballots — failed to make any headway in state courts. The election contest lawsuit, filed the day of the press conference, was summarily rejected by Carson City District Court Judge James Russell, who in an order earlier this month wrote that the campaign had produced evidence with “little to no value,” a far cry from casting enough reasonable doubt on Biden’s 33,596-vote victory over Trump.

Full Article: Why Trump’s lawsuit seeking to overturn Nevada’s presidential race sputtered in court

Nevada: Clark County begins five-day recount process in race determined by 10 votes | Kristyn Leonard/Nevada Independent

Clark County Election Department staff were on site bright and early at 5 a.m. on Monday to start a recount for the District C seat on the county commission — a process that election staff expect to take five days and that cost losing candidate Stavros Anthony nearly $80,000. Anthony, a Republican, requested the recount on Friday, three days after the Clark County Commission voted to certify Democrat Ross Miller’s 10-vote victory in the race. The commission had originally chosen not to certify the results because of 139 ballot discrepancies in the district, which outnumbered Miller’s margin of victory. After a suit from Miller, an intervention by Anthony, and a statement from a judge that the discrepancies did not mean an election was prevented and, therefore, did not constitute “cause” for a new election to be called, the commission reconsidered its decision and voted to canvass and certify initial results on Tuesday. What has resulted from the contentious process is a recount in a massive district where more than 153,000 ballots will need to be reviewed.

Full Article: The Indy Explains: Clark County begins five-day recount process in race determined by 10 votes

Nevada judge rejects Trump campaign lawsuit seeking to block state’s presidential election results, says no evidence election was affected by fraud | Riley Snyder/Nevada Independent

President Donald Trump’s legal effort to overturn presidential results in Nevada has fallen short after a Carson City District Court judge rejected his team’s request to award the state’s six electoral votes to the incumbent. Judge James Russell ruled Friday against the Trump campaign’s unprecedented request to either block certification of the state’s presidential election results or award the state’s electoral votes to Trump, saying in a written order that the campaign’s claims of voter fraud to the level needed to bring the state’s presidential results into question fell far short of the evidentiary standard needed to contest the results of the presidential election. In his 35-page order, Russell wrote that he found the evidence offered by the Trump campaign to have “little to no value,” and failed to provide under any standard of proof that the campaign’s long list of alleged fraud and vote irregularities could be backed up under any evidentiary standard. “Contestants did not prove under any standard of proof that any illegal votes were cast and counted, or legal votes were not counted at all, for any other improper or illegal reason, nor in an amount equal to or greater than 33,596, or otherwise in an amount sufficient to raise reasonable doubt as to the outcome of the election,” Russell wrote in the order. “Reasonable doubt is one based on reason, not mere possibility.”

Full Article: Judge rejects Trump campaign lawsuit seeking to block state’s presidential election results, says no evidence election was affected by fraud

Nevada: Trump’s attempt to overturn election to be ruled on Friday | Rory Appleton/Las Vegas Review-Journal

A Carson City district court judge will rule Friday on an attempt by President Donald Trump’s campaign to overturn the state’s presidential election results and bar electors for President-elect Joe Biden from formalizing his victory when the Electoral College meets later this month. Judge James Russell heard arguments in the case Thursday but did not make a determination, saying he needed the evening to review the evidence cited in both campaign attorneys’ arguments to decide. He pledged to issue a ruling on Friday. “It is important for all Americans to have confidence that their government officials have conducted a fair, open and free election with every vote filed legally and counted honestly,” Russell said to open the hearing. Trump’s proposed slate of electors filed the challenge last month against Biden’s proposed electors, who were confirmed as Nevada’s representatives in the Electoral College when the state certified the election last week. Biden’s official margin over Trump in Nevada was 33,596 votes, or about 2.4 percentage points.

Full Article: Trump’s attempt to overturn Nevada’s election to be ruled on Friday | Las Vegas Review-Journal

Nevada: Presidential campaigns to examine Clark County voting equipment | Rory Appleton/Las Vegas Review-Journal

A Carson City district court judge will allow attorneys for President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign and President-elect Joe Biden’s Nevada electors to inspect test results from Clark County voting equipment on Tuesday. Judge James T. Russell granted a motion from Trump’s campaign on Monday, following a Nevada state law that allows both parties to inspect a sealed container of test results and reports for the equipment used in the contested election, in this case the Nov. 3 general election. The defendants, a slate of electors set to formally cast Nevada’s six electoral college votes for Biden later this month, did not oppose the order. Clark County spokesman Dan Kulin said the county also did not oppose the request, and election officials are accommodating the 1 p.m. Tuesday deadline set by the judge. Trump referenced the order in a tweet Monday night, saying the judge “has ordered Clark County officials to allow an inspection of the elections equipment and sealed containers used in the 2020 election by 1:00 P.M. tomorrow.”

Full Article: Presidential campaigns to examine Clark County voting equipment | Las Vegas Review-Journal

Nevada’s Attorney General did not admit to changing signature verification manually in election | Doug Stanglin/USA Today

The aftermath of the presidential election has prompted a cascade of claims of deliberate manipulation of vote counting. One Facebook user on Nov. 16 claimed: “Nevada AG Admits to Changing Signature Verifications Manually for Over 200,000 Votes. Everyone Knows this, right?” At first, the claim seems puzzling, given the gravity of the charge and the fact that Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford is a Democrat. James Dehaven, political reporter for the Reno Gazette-Journal, says he has no knowledge of any such explosive quote by Ford. Jon Ralston, a political reporter and editor of The Nevada Independent, says the claim that the attorney general made the statement statement is “crazy talk.” “I don’t even know what to say about this because it’s so insane,” Ralston tells USA TODAY in an email. “Ford would not have the ability to do this, nor has he ever said he did so.”

Full Article: Fact check: False claim on Nevada AG and signature verifications

 

Nevada: Trump Campaign Takes Aim At Native Vote Project | Bert Johnson/Nevada Public Radio

The Trump campaign is suing to overturn Nevada’s election results yet again. President-elect Joe Biden won the state by a margin of more than 33,000 votes. But lawyers for Trump and the state Republican party are asking the judge to either give Nevada’s six electoral college votes to Trump – or nullify the election. They’re also taking aim at get-out-the-vote efforts in Native American communities. In the lawsuit, Trump’s lawyers say the Nevada Native Vote Project acted improperly on Election Day, when it hosted get-out-the-vote events at polling places. “I think that this lawsuit is a little bit reckless,” said Jacqueline De León, staff attorney for the Native American Rights Fund, “It’s sort of just casting a wide net of disparagement on the Nevada Native Vote Project. And it turns out a lot of their claims are unsubstantiated.” The campaign is accusing the project of buying votes by handing out food and T-shirts outside a polling site on Election Day. However, De Leon said the laws they’re basing that accusation on is from the Tammany Hall days when people were actually paid to vote. Because of that, the law is rarely enforced.

Full Article: Trump Campaign Takes Aim At Nevada Native Vote Project | Nevada Public Radio

Nevada judge won’t block certifying election, rejects revote | Ken Ritter(Associated Press

A Nevada judge declined Friday to block statewide certification of the Nov. 3 election or order a do-over in Las Vegas and surrounding Clark County for a Republican congressional candidate who lost by nearly 5% to an incumbent Democrat. The rulings in separate cases by Clark County District Court Judge Gloria Sturman followed a rehash of arguments rejected in other state and federal courts about vote-by-mail and ballot counts. They did not affect other legal actions pending in Nevada before Sturman and other judges, including a key election challenge by attorneys for President Donald Trump’s campaign. That case aims to nullify the Nevada election or have the Republican president declared the winner despite tallies showing that of the more than 1.4 million votes cast, President-elect Joe Biden, the Democrat, won by approximately 2.4%, or more than 33,000 votes. A hearing in that case is scheduled Dec. 1 before a judge in Carson City. In Las Vegas, Sturman rejected as “a really extreme request” the bid by conservative former Nevada lawmaker Sharron Angle and her voting watchdog group, the Election Integrity Project of Nevada, to block certification results of the statewide election. The state Supreme Court has scheduled that action next Tuesday.

Full Article: Nevada judge won’t block certifying election, rejects revote

Nevada: GOP elections chief mum as Democrats defend vote | Michelle L. Price and Ken Ritter/Associated Press

While President Donald Trump has escalated his legal battle over the election in Nevada and sought to contest its results, the Republican official in charge of supervising the state’s vote has stayed quiet. Republican Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, who has kept a low profile since Trump launched a series of legal challenges in Nevada, has not issued any statements since the president’s campaign contested the results of the state’s vote Tuesday. Her office said Wednesday that she was unavailable for an interview and declined to respond to emailed questions about Trump asking a judge to overturn or throw out the Nevada results, along with claims from his lawyers that the results “lacked integrity.” Cegavske spokeswoman Jennifer Russell said the secretary of state would not comment because of the lawsuit. Other elected officials, all Democrats, defended the election process. State Attorney General Aaron Ford said evidence shows Nevada held fair, safe and secure elections and that there was no widespread voter fraud. Ford said in a statement that his office would prosecute “any isolated and substantiated incidents of voter fraud.” Ford said Trump’s team never filed an official complaint and supporting evidence with his office, despite being explicitly invited to do so.

Full Article: GOP elections chief mum as Democrats defend Nevada vote

Nevada: Without evidence, GOP continues legal push to question Nevada’s election integrity | Ed Komenda James DeHaven/Reno Gazette Journal

Despite showing no evidence of fraud or wrongdoing in court filings, President Donald Trump’s campaign in Nevada has leveled a flurry of allegations in a new lawsuit filed Tuesday questioning the integrity of Nevada’s general election. The lawsuit is asking that Trump be named the winner of the election – or that the results of the presidential race in Nevada are annulled and no winner is certified there. Former Vice President Joe Biden won Nevada by a 33,596-vote margin, according to the Nevada Secretary of State’s office. Biden’s 11,368-vote margin of victory in Washoe County was also certified by county commissioners on Monday. “Donald Trump won the state of Nevada after you account for the fraud and irregularities that occured in the election,” said Jesse Binnall, counsel to the Trump campaign. “Nevada and Clark County have created this crisis.” The legal filing on Tuesday came after Clark County commissioners on Monday accepted the results of the election in the Las Vegas area, where more than 977,000 votes were tallied. Registrar of Voters Joe Gloria acknowledged 936 “discrepancies” among votes countywide. Gloria said officials identified six people who voted twice.

Full Article: Without evidence, GOP again questions Nevada election integrity

Nevada: Trump and allies pitch yet another woeful voter-fraud theory | Aaron Blake/The Washington Post

President Trump’s and his allies’ scattershot hunt for voter fraud appears to have landed on its new target: a race in Nevada that elections officials have moved to redo because of ballot discrepancies. To hear Trump and his allies tell it, it’s something amounting to a voter-fraud smoking gun. As usual, the truth is far less compelling. … The argument is basically: If this result can’t be trusted, how can the results in the presidential race be? Nevada is one of several closely decided states, and the Trump campaign is pursuing legal action there. Trump and Grenell even alluded to the fact that the presidential race also appeared on those ballots, apparently suggesting that those votes are now in question, too. The language they use, though, is highly misleading and sometimes demonstrably false. At issue is a race for the Clark County Commission, where 153,000 ballots were indeed cast. There are discrepancies with a very limited number of them — 139, to be exact. That represents less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the votes.

Full Article: Trump’s bad Nevada voter fraud theory – The Washington Post

Nevada: Trump attacks Vegas-area certification of Biden election win | Ken Ritter/Associated Press

As officials in Nevada’s most populous counties certified results of the Nov. 3 election, President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Monday with a new attack on the vote that gave Democratic candidate Joe Biden a 33,596-vote statewide victory. The former vice president drew 50.06% of the vote and Trump 47.67% — a 2.39% difference — in results submitted for approval by commissioners in 17 counties including Clark, which encompasses Las Vegas, and Washoe, surrounding Reno. In the Las Vegas area, officials identified six people who voted twice, Clark County Registrar of Voters Joe Gloria told elected county commissioners. They urged Gloria to track Nevada Secretary of State investigations of those cases for possible prosecution. On a 6-1 vote, the commission accepted results of Gloria’s tally of 977,185 ballots cast in the Biden-Trump race. But the panel also took a first step toward a do-over in one commission district where a Democratic former Nevada secretary of state, Ross Miller, led Republican Las Vegas City Councilman Stavros Anthony by 10 votes after more than 153,000 ballots were counted. Gloria said election officials found 936 “discrepancies” among votes countywide — ranging from inadvertently canceled votes, reactivated voter cards and check-in errors at polling places.

Full Article: Trump attacks Vegas-area certification of Biden election win

Nevada: Military voters fear they’re part of unsupported fraud claim | Michelle L. Price, ichael Balsamo and Anthony Izaguirre/Associated Press

Some military voters are concerned they have been thrust into the center of unsubstantiated fraud claims by President Donald Trump’s campaign that several thousand people may have improperly voted in Nevada. There is no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election despite Trump’s claims. Election officials from both political parties have stated publicly that the election went well and international observers confirmed there were no serious irregularities that elected Democrat Joe Biden the next president. Still, lawyers from Trump’s campaign sent a letter to Attorney General William Barr alleging they had uncovered what they described as “criminal voter fraud” in Nevada. They said they had identified 3,062 people who “improperly” cast mail ballots in Clark County, a Democrat-heavy area that includes Las Vegas and about 75% of the state’s population. Those people were identified by “cross-referencing the names and addresses of voters with the National Change of Address database,” according to the letter. A copy of the letter provided to The Associated Press included a 62-page chart enumerating each voter but the listing did not include the name, address or party affiliation. Instead, it listed voters by the county, city, state and zip code they moved from, and the city, state and nine-digit zip code they moved to. The full nine-digit zip code can narrow an address down to a particular segment of a few blocks or even one side of a street, according to the U.S. Postal Service.

Full Article: Military voters fear they’re part of unsupported fraud claim

Nevada: Trump, GOP drop court appeal of ballot count case | Ken Ritter/Associated Press

A state court legal fight to stop the counting of mail ballots in the Las Vegas area has ended after the Nevada Supreme Court dismissed an appeal by the Donald Trump campaign and the state Republican party, at their request. The dismissal leaves two active legal cases in Nevada relating to the 2020 presidential election, as a small number of remaining ballots are counted. The campaign and GOP had tried to withdraw the appeal in the state case, submitting a document last week telling the seven-member court that it had reached a settlement calling for Clark County election officials to allow more observers at a ballot processing facility. However, not all the parties in the lawsuit signed the agreement. The case also involved the national and state Democratic parties, the Nevada secretary of state and the Clark County registrar of voters. Trump Nevada campaign official Adam Laxalt did not immediately respond Wednesday to messages about the action by the state high court.

Full Article: Trump, GOP drop Nevada court appeal of ballot count case

Nevada: Military voters included on Trump campaign list of ‘improperly cast’ ballots: reports | Josh Bowden/The Hill

A list produced by the Trump campaign purporting to detail just over 3,000 instances of alleged voter fraud in Nevada contains hundreds of addresses used by active-duty military members and their families. The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that the list of 3,062 alleged instances of people voting in Nevada while living elsewhere included hundreds of active-duty military members who apparently live in Nevada but are stationed elsewhere in the U.S. or overseas. Active-duty members of the armed services frequently vote absentee while stationed away from home. “Our voter registration is in Nevada, our cars are registered in Nevada, our licenses are in Nevada,” one woman whose husband is stationed in California told the Journal after finding their address on the list. “We just don’t live there because the military has told us to move somewhere else.” “To see my integrity challenged, along with other members of the military to be challenged in this way, it is a shock. And to be potentially disenfranchised because of these actions, that’s not OK,” the woman, Amy Rose, added to Military.com in a statement. “It’s pretty obvious that hundreds of military people are on this list. There didn’t seem to be any effort to look at this list before they made their accusations.”

Full Article: Military voters included on Trump campaign list of ‘improperly cast’ ballots: reports | TheHill

Nevada: No Evidence To Support Claims Californians Fraudulently Voted In Nevada Election | Chris Nichols/capradio

Several days after President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in Nevada, conservative groups continue to make unproven claims about voter fraud, even suggesting that votes from Californians helped Biden win in the Silver State. The Associated Press and other media organizations declared Biden the winner on Saturday. His margin has steadily increased to 36,000, with 97% of the votes counted as of Tuesday. Here’s why AP called the state for Biden. Last week, however, President Donald Trump’s campaign and Republicans in Nevada claimed without evidence that thousands of people who had moved out of Clark County, which is home to Las Vegas, had voted in the state’s presidential election. PolitiFact rated that claim False because it’s unproven, noting that people who move within 30 days before an election can cast a vote in their prior state of residence or their new state, either in-person or by mail, according to the Nevada Secretary of State’s Office. A Nevadan who goes to another state for college can also request a ballot and vote in the Silver State. The list provided last week by Trump’s lawyers included addresses for Americans serving overseas in the military, who are also legally allowed to vote absentee in Nevada.

Full Article: No Evidence To Support Claims Californians Fraudulently Voted In Nevada Election – capradio.org

Nevada Election Results: the 3,000 Challenged Votes | Zusha Elinson and Sara Randazzo/Wall Street Journal

When Trump campaign attorneys released a list of 3,000 people who they said voted in Nevada after moving to another state, they said it was evidence of voter fraud in a closely contested battleground state. Military families and Nevada elections officials point to something else: Service members who have legally voted in Nevada after being transferred elsewhere. President-elect Joe Biden was declared the winner of Nevada’s six electoral votes, according to the Associated Press. He was leading by roughly 31,000 votes on Sunday afternoon, with 93% of the vote counted. The Trump campaign has vowed to investigate alleged voter irregularities and is backing a lawsuit filed in the state challenging ballot counting. Trump campaign attorneys sent U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr a letter Thursday alleging “criminal voter fraud” in Nevada and asking for an investigation. It sent Mr. Barr a list of unnamed individuals who “appear to have improperly cast mail ballots” in Nevada after moving elsewhere, according to a search of what it called a change-of-address database. The publicly released list gave ZIP Codes of where the voters currently and previously lived, but no other personally identifying information or dates of moves.

Full Article: Nevada Election Results: the 3,000 Challenged Votes – WSJ

Nevada Attorney General urges patience with vote count, brushes off lawsuit threat | Hillary Davis/Las Vegas Sun

Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford called for patience as Nevada’s vote count continued today, brushing aside threats of litigation from President Donald Trump’s camp. “We knew that the process would take time, but this process is working,” Ford said. Elections officials should be commended for ensuring an accurate count, he said. Trump’s campaign in Nevada, meanwhile, announced plans to file a lawsuit to stop the counting of “improper” votes in Clark County over unspecified reports of “irregularities.” Elections officials have not reported any widespread irregularities. Ford called the threatened lawsuit a last-ditch attempt at influencing the election outcome, noting that voter fraud is exceedingly rare. “I will leave the hysteria and the hyperbole to those who are attempting to undermine this process,” Ford said. “What I’m going to do is to defend the process — one that is legal, lawful, safe and secure and that’s going to guarantee every lawful vote that has been cast is going to be counted.” In Nevada, Democrat Joe Biden is running ahead of Trump by 11,438 votes, with about 190,150 ballots still to be counted, state officials said. Most of the outstanding ballots — about 90% of them — are in Democratic-leaning Clark County, officials said.

Full Article: Nevada AG urges patience with vote count, brushes off lawsuit threat – Las Vegas Sun Newspaper

Nevada: Tensions rising at protest at Clark County election headquarters | lexis Ford/Las Vegas Review-Journal

Co-organizer Mike Coudrey said the Stop the Steal group’s Facebook page was taken down, citing misinformation of Facebook’s Terms of Service, which Coudrey said the group followed carefully. “We want a fair and open and honest and transparent election and right now we are in the belief that we do not have that,” he said. “We feel this disenfranchises voters, that potentially our votes are not being heard.” One counter-protester was seen waving a Democrat flag. He told police other protesters were trying to assault him. When a group approached him, a protester with a Women for Trump flag encouraged others to respect him even if they didn’t agree with him. A protester in a MAGA hat was also seen shining a strobe light into the eyes of the counter-protester and an ABC reporter. A similar protest on Wednesday drew about 70 people to the election department while protests elsewhere in the nation demanding a halt to counting ballots led to safety concerns in several cities.

Full Article: Tensions rising at protest at Clark County election headquarters | Las Vegas Review-Journal

Nevada Supreme Court rejects Trump campaign emergency request to limit mail ballot counting in Clark County | Riley Snyder/Nevada Independent

The Nevada Supreme Court has denied an emergency request by President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign and the state Republican Party to immediately order Clark County election officials to stop processing mail ballots. The appeal, filed Tuesday in the state Supreme Court, was a last-minute request for the state’s highest court to block Clark County’s mail ballot process. Carson City District Court Judge James Wilson on Monday issued an order flatly rejecting all of the requests to modify the county’s mail ballot processing plan as lacking standing to warrant last-minute judicial intervention in the state’s election process. The order, signed by all seven members of the court, stated that the appeal failed to demonstrate a “sufficient likelihood of success to merit a stay or injunction” and that the request failed to identify any “mandatory statutory duty” or “manifest abuse of discretion” that would warrant judicial intervention at this point on Election Day. “Appellants motion, on its face, does not identify any mandatory statutory duty that respondents appear to have ignored,” Justice Kristina Pickering wrote in the order. “Further, appellants fail to address the district court’s conclusion that they lack standing to pursue this relief.” The order did set an expedited briefing schedule, with the Trump campaign and state Republican Party given until Thursday to file a formal brief and the defendants given until Monday, Nov. 9, to file a response.

Full Article: Nevada Supreme Court rejects Trump campaign emergency request to limit mail ballot counting in Clark County

Nevada: Judge blocks Trump lawsuit challenging how Clark County counts mail-in ballots | Colton Lochhead/Las Vegas Review-Journal

A Carson City judge on Monday blocked a lawsuit brought by President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign that attempted to change how Clark County is processing mail-in ballots in the final days of the election. The Nevada Republican Party and Trump’s re-election campaign filed the lawsuit on Friday asking the the court to force Clark County to alter how it has been counting and verifying mail ballots, to allow “meaningful” observation of all stages of the process, including allowing a camera inside the room where ballots are stored at the county facility, and for a way to challenge mail ballots. They claimed that the county’s process was creating risk of voter fraud and was “diluting” the votes. Carson City Judge James Wilson disagreed. “There is no evidence of any debasement or dilution of any citizen’s vote,” wrote Wilson, who added that the Republicans’ attorneys failed to present evidence to back up any of their claims alleged in the lawsuit or in the hearing held last week. Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald said in a statement Monday that they might file an expedited appeal to the state Supreme Court. Election Day is Tuesday.

Full Article: Judge blocks lawsuit challenging how Clark County counts mail-in ballots | Las Vegas Review-Journal

Nevada judge denies GOP request to halt mail ballot counting in Clark County | Rory Appleton/Las Vegas Review-Journal

A Carson City judge Friday denied to halt ballot counting in Clark County in response to a lawsuit filed by Republicans that contends the county has violated state election law.The Nevada Republican Party and President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign filed the lawsuit against Clark County Registrar Joe Gloria and Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske on Friday.The lawsuit asked a judge to stop the counting and verification of mail ballots until the case could be heard.But Attorney General Aaron Ford, whose office defends Cegavske in litigation, tweeted Friday afternoon that his office had “defeated President Trump’s and Nevada GOP’s request for a temporary restraining order to stop the counting of the ballots.”

Nevada: Trump campaign sues Nevada over bill expanding mail-in voting for general election | Michelle Rindels/Nevada Independent

President Donald Trump’s campaign has sued Nevada over a contentious bill recently approved in the ongoing special session of the Nevada Legislature that expands mail-in voting for the 2020 general election, saying it would make voter fraud “inevitable.” The lawsuit, filed late Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Nevada against Republican Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, comes after the president spent the past three days criticizing the move to a mostly mail election through tweets accusing Democrats of “an illegal late night coup” and in a press conference calling the measure a “disgrace.” Plaintiffs say the bill forces Republicans to expend resources educating people about the changes and encouraging them to participate. “The RNC has a vital interest in protecting the ability of Republican voters to cast, and Republican candidates to receive, effective votes in Nevada elections and elsewhere,” the suit says. “Major or hasty changes confuse voters, undermine confidence in the electoral process, and create incentive to remain away from the polls.” The bill, AB4, passed on party lines over the last few days and was signed into law on Monday. It specifies that in the November general election, and any others that happen in the wake of a statewide emergency or disaster directive, election officials will send all active registered voters a mail-in ballot.

Nevada: Trump pledges lawsuit to block mail-in voting in Nevada | Quint Forgey and Matthew Choi/Politico

President Donald Trump plans to sue to stop Nevada from issuing mailed ballots to all active voters, he announced at a White House briefing on Monday. Trump had already threatened legal action earlier in the day, suggesting mailed ballots would make it impossible for Republicans to win there in the November general election. Nevada state lawmakers approved legislation on Sunday to automatically send mail-in ballots to voters. Gov. Stephen Sisolak of Nevada, a Democrat, is expected to sign the bill into law. Trump said he planned to have the lawsuit filed Tuesday. The president has aggressively advocated for in-person voting in recent months even as state-level election officials move to expand mail-in voting amid the nationwide outbreak of coronavirus, which many fear could be easily spread at polling places. He stopped short of saying he would issue an executive order in response to the push for more mail-in voting, though he said: “I have the right to do it. We haven’t gotten there yet. We’ll see what happens.” The president had already threatened legal action against Nevada in a tweet Monday morning in which he characterized the state’s Legislature as having partaken in a “coup” by passing the measure.

Nevada: Long lines to vote delay Nevada election returns | John Sadler/Las Vegas Sun

Early returns from Nevada’s primary election Tuesday were delayed after polling places in the state’s two most populous counties were kept open to allow those waiting in long lines to vote. Voters at some Las Vegas-area polling places Tuesday were waiting in lines of three hours or more despite Nevada officials encouraging people to cast their primary election ballots by mail because of the coronavirus pandemic. In the Reno area, Washoe County officials reported delays of at least an hour. Hundreds were still in line when polls were supposed to close at 7 p.m. The top-ticket races that voters were settling included contests for Nevada’s four U.S. House seats, but the incumbents — three Democrats and a Republican — are expected to sail through primary challenges. The biggest question Tuesday was which candidates will try to unseat them in November. Nevada reduced in-person voting sites for the primary because of the coronavirus and instead sent absentee ballots to voters that could be mailed back or dropped off. For those who still showed up at the limited number of polling places, they were casting ballots Tuesday on paper rather than voting machines to limit contact with shared surfaces.