PAHRUMP, Nev. (KLAS) — Commissioners in Nye County voted Tuesday to ask their county clerk to consider administering this year’s primary and general elections using hand-counted paper ballots only.
Tuesday’s 5-0 vote came with no evidence of fraud or widespread fraud in Nye County. It was unclear how the measure could move forward before the June primary.
In Nevada in 2020, 10 dead voters had ballots cast in their names and 10 people voted twice, the 8 News Now I-Team has reported, far below initial claims from state and national Republicans alleging nearly 4,000 individual cases of voter fraud.
Tuesday’s agenda item said the proposal was “to ensure accuracy and transparency of the democratic voting process.” While not part of the proposal, the county clerk said she must continue to be able to administer federally required provisions for voters with disabilities.
Commissioners heard from Republican Secretary of State candidate Jim Marchant on vulnerabilities of the election system, though no evidence was provided.
“The computer systems are so complex, that even cyber experts can’t determine that they haven’t been altered or manipulated,” said Marchant, who ran in the 2020 Election to represent Nevada’s Fourth Congressional District, which includes Nye County, but lost.
Marchant sued in Clark County days after the election, citing widespread fraud. A judge denied his request, citing several issues with his case, including a lack of concrete evidence.
No speaker provided evidence that any Nye County ballot or machine had been the subject of fraud. After several lawsuits in both state and federal court, no judge found any evidence of widespread fraud.
“No one in the state of Nevada does this,” Sandra Merlino, the county clerk, said. “They don’t hand count and use only paper ballots.”
In addition, Merlino said the county has a contract with Dominion Voting Systems and that nullifying that contact could cost the county money. She added there was not enough time to make major changes to the election process before June.
Supporters of the switch to a paper-only election said voting machines could be hacked, but staff with the Secretary of State’s Office, which oversees elections, said Nevada’s voting machines do not have a modem and print out a paper record. Because the machines do not have a modem, they cannot connect to the internet.
Last summer, the Nevada Legislature and Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak implemented a law, which requires a Nevada voter to opt-out rather than opt-in to receive a mail-in ballot. With the bill’s passage last year, Nevada became the sixth state to have such a system.
Nevada moved to a temporary mail-in ballot program for the November 2020 election due to the coronavirus pandemic. Every voter, regardless of if they wanted a mail-in ballot, received one. Nearly half of all votes in the 2020 election in Nevada were cast by mail.
The law also requires election workers to take a class on signature verification and limits the number of days a mail-in ballot can be accepted from seven to four. In-person voting will continue to remain available.
Additionally, the law requires the Secretary of State’s Office to work with the State Registrar of Vital Statistics to crosscheck a statewide active voter registration list. County clerks work with the state office to update the database, now accessible to voters.
Republicans gained seats in the Senate and Assembly with Nevada’s first widescale test of mail-in voting in the most recent election, though Democratic President Joe Biden won the state by more than 30,000 votes or about 2%.
In Nye County, former President Donald Trump won nearly 70% of the vote.
