LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — The Republican National Committee filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Clark County, its election department and the county registrar to release poll worker information they said is being withheld.
The lawsuit specifically asks a judge to force the county to release “the partisan breakdown and political affiliation” of the county’s poll workers. Lawyers for the RNC claim the county has declined to provide that level of data, citing privacy concerns, even offering to “treat this information as ‘attorneys’ eyes only.'”
In its lawsuit, the RNC claims all registered poll workers should not be of the same party. Nevada law requires political parties to be equally represented among poll workers.
There is no evidence that poll workers are of all the same party in Clark County.
Clark County Registrar Joe Gloria, who is personally named in the lawsuit, has repeatedly said poll observers, not poll workers, from both parties have had reasonable access as provided by law. A judge tossed a lawsuit from Republicans regarding poll watchers following the 2020 election.
Nevada law allows for poll watchers and election observers, but all watchers must agree to certain rules, including no photography. Members of the media go through a different procedure and must prove they are credentialed.
According to the lawsuit, the RNC is asking the county for poll worker data regarding the 2022 primary and upcoming general election. The request was filed in August and later denied. The RNC claims the information is a public record and does not include other identifiable information.
Clark County voter rolls, which are publicly available online, include voter registration information, including political party unless the person asks for the data, which includes addresses and phone numbers, to be marked confidential.
As of Tuesday, there were nearly 1.3 million registered voters in Clark County. The majority, 36%, are Democrats, followed by 31% who are registered as nonpartisan and 26% who are registered as Republicans.
According to the letter the RNC sent to the county in early August, the party also asked for its mail-in ballot procedures and information about ballots where signatures did not match.
No election lawsuit challenging the mail-in voting process in Clark County filed by former President Donald Trump’s campaign, or the Republican Party succeeded in finding any evidence of widespread fraud.
“The RNC has consistently tried to work with Clark County to ensure that its election officials are following Nevada law by ensuring bipartisan representation among poll workers,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “The county has refused our good-faith compromises and is hiding records that the public is legally allowed to see. Sunlight is the best disinfectant: we are suing Clark County to secure the election transparency that Nevadans deserve ahead of midterms.”
In Nevada in 2020, 10 dead voters had ballots cast in their names and 10 people voted twice, the 8 News Now Investigators have reported, far below initial claims from state and national Republicans alleging nearly 4,000 individual cases of voter fraud.
In one case, Donald “Kirk” Hartle, who told the Investigators in 2020 that someone had stolen his deceased wife’s ballot and voted, in fact voted himself, officials said.
Rosemarie Hartle, of Las Vegas, died in 2017 at age 52 from breast cancer, Kirk Hartle, told the I-Team after the November election. A ballot for Rosemarie was issued in October 2020 and later received by the county, but Kirk said the ballot never came to his house. The 8 News Now Investigators found even though Rosemarie died in 2017, her name appeared on the active voter list.
The Investigators were first to report that prosecutors were charging Kirk Hartle in October 2021. In a plea agreement, Kirk Hartle pleaded guilty to one charge of voting more than once in the same election, which is a category D felony. Category D felonies carry a maximum prison sentence of four years.
As part of the plea deal, Hartle avoided prison time and was placed on probation. If he stays out of trouble for a year, he will be able to withdraw his plea and instead plead guilty to a charge of conspiracy to commit voting more than once in the same election.
Rosemarie Hartle’s ballot was one of two cited by Nevada Republicans and national party leaders as evidence of voter fraud in Nevada.
Former Attorney General Bill Barr, a Republican, said there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election. President Joe Biden won the election in Nevada by more than 33,000 votes statewide.
An independent audit of the Clark County Election Department released this summer found no issues regarding how Nevada’s largest county processes mail-in ballots — from their creation to their tabulation.
“Clark County takes seriously the privacy of our poll workers to protect these citizens from harassment, threats, and other forms of intimidation,” a county spokesperson said in a statement Tuesday afternoon. “The integrity of our election process is critical and so is ensuring that those who are working to uphold the rights of all citizens to exercise their right to vote are not threatened by others who wish to unravel our election process. We are in receipt of the RNC’s lawsuit and will respond through our legal process.”
A hearing was scheduled for Oct. 3.
