Two federal lawsuits challenging the way Nevada manages its voting processes were filed on the eve of the state’s primary. Civil rights groups claim the state violates the National Voter Registration Act by not helping low-income voters register to participate. In the second complaint, voters challenged Nevada’s unique rule allowing for a “none-of-the-above” vote. Nevada reported a turnout of about 20 percent of registered voters for its Tuesday primary. In the first lawsuit, the National Council of La Raza and Las Vegas and Reno-Sparks branches of the NAACP claim Secretary of State Ross Miller and the state’s director of Health and Human Services fail to offer voting assistance at public assistance offices, as required by the National Voter Registration Act.
The law requires all public assistance offices to provide a form asking clients if they want to register to vote, and information about the registration process. The office is also supposed to help voters fill out the applications and accept them. But election officials have failed to do so, the groups say.
“Nevada’s failure to comply … excludes from the political participation many of the state’s most vulnerable citizens, citizens on whose well-being the state’s policy decisions have an especially acute impact,” the complaint states. “Thousands of low-income citizens have been disenfranchised in Nevada. … Nevada’s ineffectual public assistance voter registration program is the result of years of neglect.”
Full Article: Courthouse News Service.