Index Investing News
Saturday, April 1, 2023
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • Home
  • World
  • Investing
  • Financial
  • Economy
  • Markets
  • Stocks
  • Crypto
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Opinion
  • Home
  • World
  • Investing
  • Financial
  • Economy
  • Markets
  • Stocks
  • Crypto
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Opinion
No Result
View All Result
Index Investing News
No Result
View All Result

It’s Hard To Run Elections These Days. Just Ask Nevada’s Election Officials.

by Index Investing News
October 22, 2022
in Uncategorized
Reading Time: 5 mins read
A A
0
Home Uncategorized
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter


Ralph Keyes and his fellow Esmeralda County commissioners voted to move away from voting machines in favor of hand-counting ballots.

AP PHOTO / JOHN LOCHER, FILE

“We’ve had the death threats,” Stacie Wilke-McCulloch said. “We’ve had the, ‘We know where you live,’ and all that.” As a trustee on the school board for Carson City, Nevada, for the past 14 years, Wilke-McCulloch is no stranger to harassment, particularly as school boards bore the brunt of criticism over controversial curricula and school closures related to COVID-19. As a result, she’s gained a thick skin that may serve her well in what she hopes will be her next job: Carson City County Clerk-Recorder. 

Once occupying a low-profile, largely bureaucratic position, county clerks are increasingly the target of intense public vitriol. Typically the chief election official for their communities, county clerks and other local election workers have faced harassment from voters convinced the 2020 election was fraudulent, thanks to former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims of a stolen election. As a result, some election officials are leaving their posts — and in some places, election deniers are signing up to replace them. 

But that’s only one part of the story. Across the country, many local election officials are staying put with the support of their communities. And in Nevada, where county clerks are up for election this fall, the full spectrum of local election administration is on display: the good, the bad and the conspiracy-riddled. 

In Carson City, Clerk-Recorder Aubrey Rowlatt is not running for reelection after serving just one term, saying she wanted to spend more time with her family. But she also told the Nevada Independent that she was burned out and wasn’t looking forward to administering this year’s election after how “emotionally charged” the 2020 election was. That said, Rowlatt won’t be replaced by an election denier. In interviews with FiveThirtyEight, both Wilke-McCulloch and opponent Scott Hoen said they believed the 2020 election was legitimate.

Want to know who will win the House? Watch these 4 districts | FiveThirtyEight

Out of Nevada’s 17 counties and county equivalents, 15 have elected county clerks who serve as the chief election official (two counties, Clark and Washoe, have an appointed registrar of voters who oversees elections). Of those 15, 12 have an incumbent clerk who is running unopposed in the general election next month, many of whom have been in the job for years. While some had to fend off challengers in the primary, others, like White Pine Clerk Nichole Baldwin, ran unopposed there, too. Baldwin — who was first elected in 2014 — said that although the 2020 election led to an unprecedented level of public response and distrust, she hasn’t experienced harassment or threats.

“Every time the public has approached us with questions or assertions of failed election integrity, I’ve been able to effectively respond to them directly, and whether or not they accept my answer, they walk away,” Baldwin said. “There are a lot of us [clerks] who are sticking it out.”

Signs for Nye county clerk candidate Mark Kampf hang along a road July 18, 2022, in Pahrump, Nevada.

AP PHOTO / JOHN LOCHER

But the Silver State hasn’t been completely spared the trend of election deniers running to take control of election administration. Trump’s claims of a stolen 2020 election sowed distrust in Nye County, where the voting machines used to not only cast but also count ballots came under intense scrutiny. In March, the county commissioners voted to recommend the county switch to hand-counting paper ballots, despite County Clerk Sandra Merlino’s defense of the system’s security. As a result, Merlino threw in the towel after more than 20 years in the job, retiring this summer, the ACLU is suing the county, and an election denier was appointed to replace Merlino. Mark Kampf, who won the Republican nomination for county clerk in June, was appointed to fill Merlino’s post through the election, in which he is running against one other candidate. Kampf has repeated election fraud conspiracy theories and said he believes Trump won in 2020. 

And he’s not alone. The Storey County Clerk-Treasurer was, until February of this year, Vanessa Stephens, who resigned; it’s currently Jim Hindle, who signed on to serve as one of the illegitimate “alternate electors” for Trump in an attempt to overturn the state’s presidential election results. Hindle won a closely contested GOP primary in the summer, and is also running unopposed in November. And Jim Marchant, the Republican nominee to be the top election official in the state, said not only that the 2020 election was fraudulent, but also that the vote of Nevadans “hasn’t counted for decades,” falsely claiming election winners had been “selected” rather than elected.

And even in counties where the incumbent clerk has remained in place, election conspiracy theories are fueling changes. County commissioners floated the idea of abandoning voting machines in Elko and Lincoln counties, and in Esmeralda County — as in Nye County — it was adopted. Though voting using hand-marked paper ballots is considered the gold standard for election security, hand-counting those ballots — as opposed to using vote-tabulation machines — is time-intensive, costly and prone to error. As long as there are paper records and precautions taken to limit risk, vote-tabulation machines are considered both secure and efficient. Meanwhile, Lander County commissioners voted to spend nearly a quarter of a million dollars to replace the Dominion voting machines used with ones made by another company, ES&S, due to false conspiracy theories around Dominion.

So while the threat of election deniers taking over election administration hasn’t infiltrated every corner of Nevada, a meaningful shift is happening, according to David Damore, a political science professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. “Election administration is now a partisan issue whereas in the past it was just government doing government business,” Damore said. In this way, Nevada is a microcosm of what we’re seeing in elections across the U.S. It’s not as though veteran, trusted election administrators are being replaced wholesale with election-denying conspiracy theorists, but that threat is real. We’re now in an era where political parties are not only concerned with who wins elections, but also who runs them. 



Source link

Tags: DaysElectionelectionsHardNevadasOfficialsrun
ShareTweetShareShare
Previous Post

Val Demings ripped Rubio a new one at their sole debate. It was refreshing

Next Post

Gakpo regrets failed Man United move

Related Posts

How long will JK Dobbins be out?

by Index Investing News
October 24, 2022
0

According to NFL Network correspondent Ian Rapoport on Friday, JK Dobbins is having knee surgery to remove damaged tissue from...

Virat Kohli stands tall as kingpin after India vs Pakistan T20 World Cup game that had everything | Cricket News

by Index Investing News
October 24, 2022
0

As India and Pakistan fans poured into the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday, they created a monster crowd of over...

North American Union: Plan To Dismantle USA

by Index Investing News
October 24, 2022
0

People are starting to realize that the collapse of the American border is not an accident. It can't be. When...

Trump Likened Relationship With Kim Jong Un To Having ‘Chemistry’ With A Woman

by Index Investing News
October 24, 2022
0

In new audio recordings released by journalist Bob Woodward, former President Donald Trump likened his relationship with North Korean dictator...

Newsom calls on Councilmembers De León and Cedillo to resign

by Index Investing News
October 24, 2022
0

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday said L.A. City Councilmembers Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo should follow Nury Martinez...

Next Post

Gakpo regrets failed Man United move

Spirit Airlines shareholders approve JetBlue sale

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

RECOMMENDED

Mainstream financial coverage should issue local weather develop into its progress calculus

April 27, 2022

Agents Sue Largest Coldwell Banker Franchise Over Commission ‘Scheme’

March 11, 2023

Wall Street drops as Powell signals Fed not close to done By Reuters

November 3, 2022

Dividend Aristocrats In Focus: Leggett & Platt

September 4, 2022

Discrimination on the ground of pregnancy still rampant, but can be remedied

September 2, 2022

A Battle Of Data Vs. Perception In New York Real Estate

October 27, 2022

Boeing protection employees set to strike after rejecting labor deal (NYSE:BA)

July 24, 2022

Blame the Fed For All the pieces!

June 10, 2022
Index Investing News

Get the latest news and follow the coverage of Investing, World News, Stocks, Market Analysis, Business & Financial News, and more from the top trusted sources.

  • Browse the latest news about investing and more
  • Contact us
  • Cookie Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer
  • DMCA
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions

Copyright © 2022 - Index Investing News.
Index Investing News is not responsible for the content of external sites.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • World
  • Investing
  • Financial
  • Economy
  • Markets
  • Stocks
  • Crypto
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Opinion

Copyright © 2022 - Index Investing News.
Index Investing News is not responsible for the content of external sites.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In