Local officials in Washoe County, Nevada, voted against certifying the results of two recounted primary races after a prominent election denier claimed the results were rigged and called for a manual recount.
Robert Beadles, a supporter of former President Donald Trump who promotes election conspiracy theories, spent $150,000 to run three local races in June’s Washoe County primary. One candidate later withdrew his request for a recount, but officials spent days recounting the thousands of votes cast and found a difference of two votes. — one vote per race — This had no effect on the significant margin of victory in the remaining two races.
The Washoe County board’s three Republican commissioners voted against certifying two primaries — for a nonpartisan school board position and a Republican county commissioner position — while two Democrats voted in favor.
Dozens of people spoke for and against certification at Tuesday’s meeting, with many of the latter calling for a recount by hand rather than by machine.
Experts have long found that counting ballots by hand is more expensive, more error-prone, and more time-consuming than using machine tabulators.
It is not clear what will happen in the mentioned two primaries.
Washoe County spokeswoman Bethany Drysdale said county officials are deferring to Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar, a Democrat, for next steps.
In a statement Wednesday, Aguilar said, “Three county commissioners this week refused to investigate accurate election results as required by law. This vote has the potential to set a dangerous precedent for elections in the state of Nevada. It is unacceptable for any public official to undermine the trust of their constituents.”
Washoe County, home to Reno, is Nevada’s second-largest county with nearly half a million residents and has been a hotbed of voter fraud allegations, despite little evidence. This year’s presidential election is again expected to be a major swing area on the battlefield.
Cari-Ann Burgess, the county’s interim registrar of voters, said her office did all due diligence when recounting the 50,000 ballots.
“We’ve reviewed every part of the election,” Burgess told commissioners Tuesday. Two sound difference The recount was caused by an error by a poll worker in discerning the voter’s intent He said that the ballots will not be scanned by machines within a certain period of time.
Beadles spent years opposing Washoe County elections. This was reported by Reuters a previous registrar and several other employees quit in response to harassment they had alleged.
During Tuesday’s meeting, many people pointed to Beadles’ claim as evidence of fraud.
“The only thing you can do today to fulfill your oath of office is to annul those results and immediately call a new election with only hand-counted paper ballots.” Paul White, one of the candidates for the school board, said at the meeting, speaking out against the certification of the race he lost.
County Commissioner Michael Clark, a Republican, said he’s “not an election denier … but I’ve seen a lot of mismanagement.” He later voted against certification.
Confirmation of local election results is a once common process is increasingly becoming a venue for making allegations of voter fraud.
Village board in Otero County, New Mexico in 2022, first declined to confirm June’s preliminary results. After the state Supreme Court ordered it, and board members were threatened with criminal charges, the commissioner agreed to reverse his vote, and the results were upheld.