Nevada district overturns disputed vote and confirms two recounts while legal action threatens

RENO, Nev. (AP) — The election commission in Nevada’s second-most populous county certified the results of two local recounts on Tuesday, overturning a contentious vote against certification that drew legal action and put Washoe County in legally uncharted territory.

The 4-1 decision overturns last week’s vote against certifying the results of the June primary recount in the politically diverse part of Northern Nevada that includes Reno. The rare move could have implications for the outcome of the November election in one of the nation’s most important swing counties.

Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar and Attorney General Aaron Ford are still waiting for the state Supreme Court to consider a petition they filed last week seeking to uphold county commissions’ legal obligation to certify election results. While it’s unclear if and when the court will take it up, a ruling could set a precedent and apply to county commissions across the state that refuse to certify results in November.

Aguilar had said the circumstances of last week’s vote could set a “dangerous precedent” that undermines voter confidence.

Shortly before Tuesday’s re-vote, County Deputy District Attorney Mary Kandaras recommended that commissioners certify the vote in accordance with state law.

Once considered a mundane and ministerial task, election certification has become a sticking point since the 2020 election. In the midterm elections two years later, a similar scenario to the current one played out in New Mexico after the Washoe County primary: a rural county delayed certifying the results and only relented when the Secretary of State appealed to the state Supreme Court.

Two Republican Washoe County commissioners, Jeanne Herman and Mike Clark, have consistently voted against certifying the results and are supported by the broader far-right movement within the county that is spreading conspiracy theories surrounding the election.

But on Tuesday, Clark apologized to his constituents before changing his vote in favor of certification. He said he cast his vote after being told that the commission does not exercise its discretion in certifying. He said he cast his vote “under extreme pressure, as both my position and a criminal prosecution were threatened.” Throughout the meeting, he reiterated his distrust of the county’s election results.

“I’m not going to call it a vote because it’s not a vote,” he said before voting to certify the recounts. “We are obligated to do this and we must do it.”

Also changing course Tuesday was Republican Commissioner Clara Andriola, who was targeted by the far-right movement in the primaries. She has often been the deciding vote in elections – she denied being a voter-obsessor and thanked the county election board, but claimed that several “problems” in the process have led to a need for more government agencies to review county election processes.

On Tuesday, Andriola said she recently met with the county’s interim election supervisor, who gave her more confidence in how elections will be conducted in Washoe County. She also spoke with the district attorney’s office, who made it clear to her that the commission’s job is to certify election results without discretion.

“Our responsibility is to comply with the law,” Andriola said.

The local far-right movement was clearly visible at the commission meetings. Conspiracy theories about voting machines and distrust of election officials were a regular feature of the commission’s public comment sessions and led to harassment and high staff turnover in the local election office over the past four years.

The rapid turnover of poll workers also led to some administrative errors by the county’s election department, such as mail-in ballots being sent to voters who had declined to receive mail-in ballots or certain local sample ballots being printed incorrectly. However, none of these errors resulted in errors in the counting of votes.

On Tuesday, most commentators called on the Election Commission not to certify the results. Some repeated false claims of voter fraud, broken voting machines and a “conspiracy” within the county to undermine the election. Others called for a manual recount or a full rerun of the election.

One commenter printed out pictures of city and county employees she accused of corruption. Several times, Commission Chair Alexis Hill threatened to take a recess when public comments were interrupted or focused on denouncing individuals rather than the committee itself. Some commenters called on commissioners to certify the vote.

“Stay strong, stay the course. You showed backbone last week. Don’t let it rattle you now,” said Bruce Parks, chairman of the Washoe GOP, which falsely claimed Joe Biden did not win the 2020 election.

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