RENO, Nev. — As Nevada counties struggle to find poll workers in a crucial election year, the western swing state’s top election official is taking notice of his colleagues elsewhere and asking the legal community to help fill the gap.
Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar wants lawyers who volunteer at the polls to be able to earn continuing education credits to meet annual requirements set by the State Bar of Nevada.
It’s a signal that lawyers are increasingly seen as ideal candidates to step in as poll watchers, as the positions become increasingly difficult to fill as previously obscure county elections departments have been thrust into the spotlight.
Aguilar compares it to the way doctors and nurses have done their jobs during the pandemic.
“Everyone needed medical care in the time of COVID. … And this is a time when we need poll workers,” Aguilar told The Associated Press. “That legal community can stand up and protect the Constitution.”
From swing states like Michigan to conservative strongholds like Tennessee and Iowa, election officials have turned to lawyers and law students as they struggle to fill poll worker spots — a challenge that has become more difficult amid changing procedures and hostility resulting from the claims from former President Donald Trump. of a stolen 2020 election.
Other recruitment campaigns targeted veterans and librarians. In 2020, LeBron James helped lead an initiative to boost turnout in critical swing states and combat black voter suppression, not least by recruiting poll workers.
Poll workers find themselves on the front lines of increasingly contentious environments, ushering people in, answering technical questions and using a handful of training hours to essentially act as guides through a process in which disagreement and disinformation can stir strong emotions.
Since 2020, eight states have adopted policies to make poll work count toward the credits needed to maintain a law license, and national advocates hope more are on the way.
After pitching the idea at a conference earlier this month, a group of bar association presidents are now tailoring the initiative to individual county election offices, rather than blanket bar association approval for entire states.
“Lawyers are careful, and I respect that. I’m one of them, and it’s taking a while to process,” said Jason Kaune, chairman of the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Election Law, to get the initiative approved by state bar associations. “This is just a faster way to get real results on the ground.”
For Aguilar, his proposal in Nevada — where turnover has plagued local election departments since 2020 — is part of a broader plan to protect election workers, whom he calls “heroes of democracy.”
Since defeating a Republican election denier in the 2022 midterm elections, Aguilar has tried to create a better environment for election workers. Last year, he pushed for a bill signed by Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo that made it difficult to harass, intimidate or use force for election workers performing their duties in Nevada.
Aguilar also hopes this latest initiative will strengthen the pipeline of full-time election workers with those already well-versed in the law.
Aguilar had hoped the State Bar of Nevada would have implemented his proposal before Nevada’s Feb. 6 presidential primary, but the secretary of state has not yet made a formal request for the association to consider it, according to the State Bar.
During Nevada’s first presidential primaries, many elections departments scrambled to find poll workers until the last minute — especially in rural areas.
In the state’s two most populous counties — Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, and Washoe County, which includes Reno — all polling places were fully staffed at the start of early voting, according to county and state elections offices. But they will need more before the June primary and November general election.
In rural Douglas County, officials recruited 46 poll workers — far fewer than the 120 needed, said Clerk-Treasurer Amy Burgans. Lyon County also fell short with 32 of the 45 poll workers needed, Clerk-Treasurer Staci Lindberg said.
Nevada’s concentrated educational landscape could make it difficult for lawyers and law students to spread out across many of the state’s far-flung counties, which are among the nation’s largest but least populated. The University of Nevada, Las Vegas is home to the state’s only law school.
And of the 12,000 attorneys licensed to practice law in Nevada, half are in Clark County, about 14% in Washoe County and just under 3% in the state’s rural counties outside the capital, according to data of the State Bar of State. Nevada.
Burgans said she doesn’t know whether attorneys in Douglas County — which borders much of Lake Tahoe — would take up the offer to earn credit by working at the ballot box. “But I will tell you that anything Secretary Aguilar can do to help us is appreciated by me and the clerks across the state,” she said.
Poll workers are particularly hard to find in Douglas County, in part because it has an abundance of part-time residents and there was recently widespread confusion over a state-run primary two days before a Republican Party-led caucus in Nevada.
Burgans also noted that there is some fear about becoming an election worker.
For the first time, she had to initiate training after letters containing fentanyl were sent to election officials in several states, including Nevada. With a background in law enforcement, Burgans also established active shooter training. Like election officials across the state, she received emails and phone calls earlier this month from voters frustrated with the Republican nomination process clashes, but said there had been no direct threats.
Humboldt County Clerk Tami Rae Spero said the impact of legal education credits for working at the polls could be “minimal.” Still, she appreciates the efforts and said it could be a springboard for similar programs that could better reach her county of just over 17,000 residents. One option could be offering community college or high school credit, she said.
Aguilar is more optimistic that the program can reach every corner of the state.
“I think there are people who are quite driven by the mission and understand the importance of pollsters and understand the process of democracy,” he said. “So they will go to extraordinary lengths to make sure that happens.”
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Stern is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit community service program that places journalists in local newsrooms. Follow Stern on X: @gabestern326.