RENO, Nevada — Commissioners in Nevada’s second-most populous county certified the results of two local recounts Tuesday, reversing a controversial vote against certification that prompted legal action and left Washoe County in uncharted legal territory.
The 4-1 vote overturns a rare measure against certifying the recount results of last month’s primary elections in the politically mixed area of Reno and northern Nevada, which could have had implications for how the elections in november could go in one of the country’s key swing counties.
Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar and Attorney General Aaron Ford are still awaiting the state Supreme Court’s hearing on a petition they filed last week seeking to affirm county commissioners’ legal obligations to certify election results. While it’s unclear if or when the court will hear it, a ruling could set a precedent that could apply to county commissions across the state that refuse to certify results in November.
Aguilar had said that the circumstances of last week’s vote could set a “dangerous precedent” that undermines voter confidence.
Just before the re-vote on Tuesday, Mary Kandaras, the county’s deputy district attorney, advised the commissioners to certify the vote so it would comply with state law.
Once seen as a mundane and ministerial task, election certification has become a pressure point since the 2020 election. During the midterm elections two years later, a scenario similar to what played out in Washoe County, New Mexico, after that state’s primary, when a rural county delayed certification of results and admitted only after the Secretary of State appealed to the state Supreme Court.
Two Republican Washoe County commissioners, Jeanne Herman and Mike Clark, have consistently voted against certifying the results and are supported by the broader far-right movement within the province who propagates election conspiracy theories.
But on Tuesday, Clark apologized to his constituents before changing his vote in favor of certification. He said he cast the ballot after being told that the commission’s certification is not discretionary. He said his vote was “made under extreme duress, under threat of both my position and prosecution.” During the meeting, he doubled down on his distrust of the county’s election results.
“I’m not going to call it a vote, because it’s not a vote,” he said before voting to certify the recount results. “We’re obligated and we have to.”
Republican Commissioner Clara Andriola, who was attacked by the far-right movement in the primaries, also reversed course on Tuesday. She has often been the decisive voice in election outcomes — rejecting the label of election denier and thanking the county election department while saying that various “hiccups” in the process meant more government agencies needed to look into county election processes.
On Tuesday, Andriola said she recently met with the county’s interim registrar of voters, who made her feel more confident about the way elections are being conducted in Washoe County. She also spoke with the county district attorney’s office, who she said made it clear that the commission’s job is to certify election results without discretion.
“It is our responsibility to follow the law,” Andriola said.
The local far-right movement has been in full view during committee meetings, where conspiracy theories about voting machines and distrust of election administrators have become a mainstay in the Commission’s public comment sections and have led to intimidation and high staff turnover the past four years at the local election office.
Amid the rapid turnover of elections staff, the county elections department has also made a number of administrative errors, including mailing ballots to voters who had opted not to receive them and misprinting certain local ballots, although this did not affect the count.
On Tuesday, most commentators urged the commissioners not to certify the results. Some repeated false claims about stolen votes, broken machines and a “cabal” inside the county undermining elections. Others called for a manual recount or a complete rerun of the election.
One commentator printed out photos of city and county employees she accused of corruption. Commission Chair Alexis Hill repeatedly threatened recess when public comment was interrupted or focused on addressing individuals rather than the board itself. A few commentators urged the commissioners to certify the vote.
“Stick to your guns, stay the course. You showed some backbone last week. Don’t lose it now,” said Bruce Parks, the chairman of the Washoe GOP who falsely claimed that Joe Biden did not win the 2020 election.