Three Republican commissioners in key battleground counties in Nevada have refused to certify an election recount, sowing new unrest in a community that has become a hotbed of election skepticism, misinformation and ill will toward public officials since the 2020 election.
Those members make up a majority on the five-member Reno-area Washoe County Commission, which will be responsible for certifying all election results in the county and conducting a similar vote after the Nov. 5 presidential election.
The secretary of state and attorney general said Wednesday night that commissioners failed to follow the bipartisan law and that they are asking the Nevada Supreme Court to require the entire county commission to fulfill its legal obligations and certify the results.
“It is unacceptable for any public official to undermine the trust of their constituents,” Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar, a Democrat, said in a statement. “The importance of this issue cannot be overstated.”
Washoe County is the second-largest county in the Silver State and, along with Clark County around Las Vegas, will decide which presidential candidate wins the battleground state’s electoral votes. The county is a battleground district with Republican, Democratic and independent voters split almost evenly.
“The most conservative county in the state has never done anything like this,” said Democratic Chair Alexis Hill, who voted in favor of certification. “This is unprecedented and goes against the very norms of our democracy.”
The recount was due to Republicans losing the election.
Tuesday’s vote was against authorizing a recount of the Washoe County Commission Republican primary and the nonpartisan school board primary, which took place June 11. The recount was requested by incumbent Commissioner Clara Andriola and a Republican candidate who lost in the closely contested nonpartisan primary to a right-wing challenger, both of whom were funded by local activist Robert Beadles.
Beadles, a wealthy businessman and major donor to the local Republican Party, has led a campaign over the past three and a half years to pressure county officials who don’t share his view that the election was riddled with fraud.
“In my opinion, this was an opportunity to create chaos in the (election official’s) office,” Hill said. “He asked for a hand count as part of the recount, which he can’t do because the votes have to be counted the same way they were counted in the original election.”
The election had administrative issues. During early voting in May, the county found a printing error that may have required some people in small precincts to revote. Then, a tabulating machine malfunctioned, causing the elections office to take longer than expected to count the ballots. Washoe County Interim Elections Supervisor Karian Burgess said the recount did not contain any errors or discrepancies.
Aguilar also defended the Registrar of Voters’ office, saying “they worked day and night to fulfill their legal obligations.” “Nevadans who took the time to fulfill their civic duty and vote in the June primary election deserve assurances that this election has a final outcome and that their voice was heard.”
Beadles, who could not be reached for comment, reported to the committee on Tuesday that analysis by mathematicians and artificial intelligence supercomputers showed that it was highly unlikely that his candidate would lose the election.
“The 2024 election was rigged,” he said. “It was fraudulent.”
Important swing votes are changing hands
The Washoe County Commission has two Republicans who have voted against certifying elections in the past — Michael Clark and Jean Herman — but this is the first time Andriola, the board’s swing vote, has sided with the other two.
The local Republican Party disapproved of Andriola in January, and several Republicans ran against her in the June primary, largely over her views on election administration. She fended off those challenges by a wide margin, but her main opponent, Mark Lawson, called for a recount. Lawson also lost the recount, leaving Andriola to decide whether to certify his victory.
Dozens of citizens held signs and spoke for hours in the commission’s chambers Tuesday in opposition to the certification of the recount, after a man began yelling abuse at the committee from the podium, forcing the committee to abruptly stop the meeting.
Some wanted the votes to be counted by hand, an idea that has become popular among the far-right, but Nevada law requires that a recount be done the same way the original election was done, which in this case meant a machine count.
“The information that was shared, in my opinion, requires further investigation,” Andriola said before voting against the certification. He added, “This was not intentional. I am not an election denier.”
Andriola, Clark and Herman did not respond to USA Today’s interview requests on Wednesday.
A re-vote is coming
Assistant District Attorney Nate Edwards told the USA Today Network on Tuesday that the secretary of state could vote on whether to certify the victory. Edwards said that if the secretary of state doesn’t do so, the matter could go to court. That’s exactly what happened.
Aguilar appeared in court alongside Democratic Attorney General Aaron Ford, who said his office would “protect Nevada’s elections from those who seek to deny the accuracy of the election results or undermine the vote count” and that he “will never hesitate to join the Secretary of State in defending Nevada’s elections.”
Hill said Andriola approached her after Tuesday’s vote and asked for reconsideration at the meeting on July 16. Hill said she added the item to the agenda and that her colleagues “understood.”
Even if Andriola returns to vote with Democrats on certification, another battle lies ahead: the Nov. 5 election for Hill’s seat, where she will face off against Republican Marsha Berkbigler, who is endorsed by Beadles.
“This whole affair isn’t over yet, but it’s not good,” Hill said. “This is unprecedented and truly infuriating behavior from an elected official.”
