RENO, Nevada — The Nevada Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to intervene in an election controversy, despite pleas from the state’s top elections official and the attorney general, after a county initially voted against certifying recount results from the June primary.
Democratic officials wanted the judges to make clear that counties have no legal authority to refuse to certify election results.
The high court said in a ruling that the case was irrelevant because the Washoe County Commission’s original 3-2 vote against certification was later overturned when it voted again the following week to certify the results.
The court denied Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar and Attorney General Aaron Ford’s request to issue a ruling declaring the commission had acted illegally. But the justices also made clear that they have the legal authority to issue such a declaration and warned that they could do so on an expedited basis if it becomes an issue again.
“As the plaintiff argues, we may still consider an issue even if it has become irrelevant if it is ‘a matter of broad relevance that is liable to recur,’” the court said.
Aguilar and Ford had argued that it was likely that the county commission would refuse to certify the results of the November general election. The court agreed that the issue was important but said it was not convinced that a rehearing was likely.
Once seen as a mundane and ministerial task, election certification has become a pressure point since the 2020 elections. 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 and admitted only after the Secretary of State appealed to the state Supreme Court.
Aguilar and Ford said in their petition to the Supreme Court that Nevada law makes compiling election results — including recounts — by a certain date a mandatory statutory duty of the county commission. It also says commissioners have no authority to refuse or otherwise neglect to perform this duty.
Aguilar and Ford have previously argued that the certification flap has potential implications in November in some of the country’s key swing counties, including Reno and Sparks, where voter registration there is roughly split down the third among Democrats, Republicans and nonpartisan.
Aguilar and Ford said Tuesday they were disappointed that the justices refused to provide more clarity on the law before the Nov. 5 general election.
“I firmly believe that the legal uncertainty surrounding this matter contributes to unwarranted distrust in our elections,” Ford said in a statement emailed to The Associated Press.
Aguilar said Nevada election workers “deserve support from the justice system, voters deserve confidence in the legitimacy of our elections, and elected officials are held accountable for their role in the process.”
“I hope the court will do the right thing if we find ourselves in a worst-case scenario, but it is disappointing that we must wait for a real crisis before this case is heard,” he said in a statement sent by his office to the AP.
Two of Washoe County’s Republican commissioners — Jeanne Herman and Mike Clark — have consistently voted against certifying results and are backed by a broader movement promoting election conspiracy theories. Republican Clara Andriola, who was targeted by that movement in the primary, initially joined them in vote against certificationone of which involved the primary race she won.
After the board revisited the issue and approved the recount numbers, Andriola said she changed course after speaking with the county district attorney’s office. She said it was clear that the commission’s job is to certify election results without discretion.
“It is our responsibility to follow the law,” Andriola said.